This year’s judges for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2021, English PEN’s annual award for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content, are academic, critic and broadcaster Professor Shahidha Bari, author and historian Dr Wanda Wyporska, and author and Managing Editor of Prospect, Sameer Rahim.
The prize of £2,000 is awarded to books of high literary merit – that is, not primarily written for the academic market – and can cover all historical periods. Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman was a member of PEN during the 1960s and 1970s. On her death in 1999 she bequeathed £100,000 to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name. Last year’s PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize was awarded to Anita Anand, for The Patient Assassin.
The shortlist will be announced in October 2021, with the winner announcement due in late November 2021.
Submissions for the 2021 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize have now closed. Entries to next year’s prize will open in early 2022.
