PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022 judges announced

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PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022 judges announced

English PEN is delighted to announce the judges for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022: academic Professor Olivette Otele, author Dr Emma Southon, and author and editor, Will Rees.

The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize of £2,000 is awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content – that is, not primarily written for the academic market – and can cover all historical periods.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. Last year’s PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize was awarded to Rebecca Wragg Sykes, for Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art (Bloomsbury).

We are very grateful to this year’s judging panel chaired by Professor Olivette Otele.

The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022 shortlist will be announced in October 2022 and the winner will be announced in person, at a special event hosted by English PEN on 8 December 2022.

Chair: Professor Olivette Otele

Olivette Otele PhD, FRHistS, FLSW is Distinguished Professor of the Legacies and Memory of Slavery at SOAS, University of London. She holds a PhD from Université La Sorbonne, Paris and received an honorary doctorate in Law from Concordia University in Canada. She is a former Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and has been a judge of the International Man Booker Prize.

Dr Emma Southon

Dr Emma Southon is the author of Marriage, Sex and Death: the Family and the Fall of Rome, Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore and A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She also co-hosts a history/comedy podcast, History is Sexy, with writer Janina Matthewson. She lives in Belfast.

Will Rees

Will Rees is a writer and editor based in London. He is a director of Peninsula Press.