The Unwin Award
The Unwin Award is a new, annual literary award administered by The Publishers Association, recognising non-fiction authors in the earlier stages of their careers as authors whose work is considered to have made a significant contribution to the world.
The Unwin Award is intended to champion and showcase the value of the UK publishing industry to the world. The Unwin Award has been made possible following a donation from the Unwin Charitable Trust.
Worth £10,000, The Unwin Award will be awarded to the author for their overall body of work, rather than being associated with a specific title.
The award will be judged by an independent panel of judges with a shortlist revealed in February 2025 and the winner at a ceremony in April 2025.
Full information on The Unwin Award eligibility and submission guidelines can be found here.
Key dates for 2025:
- The shortlist will be revealed on Tuesday 18 February 2025.
- The winner announcement will take place on Tuesday 1 April 2025.
FAQ
The Unwin Award will spotlight an exciting author whose non-fiction work has made a significant contribution to the world. The Award is intended to champion and showcase the value of the UK publishing industry to the world.
The Unwin Award has been made possible following a donation from the Unwin Charitable Trust.
The Publishers Association have committed to running the Award and Lecture until 2030.
The award will be judged by an independent panel of judges. The Judging Panel will be announced in due course.
The Unwin Award 2025 opens for entries on Wednesday 4 September 2024. The closing date for entries is Friday 18 October 2024.
The Award will recognise non-fiction authors who are in the earlier stages of their careers as authors, whose work is considered to have made a significant contribution to the world.
Publishers must submit a form articulating how the author fulfils the requirement to have published work that has ‘made a significant contribution to the world’.
Full details of submissions guidelines can be found here.
The shortlist will be revealed in February 2025.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in April 2025.
The inaugural Unwin Award Lecture was delivered by esteemed historian and author Peter Frankopan at The Royal Institution on 20 February 2024.
Details about the 2025 Lecture will be announced shortly.
The published work must have made a significant contribution to the world. The examples of this might be wide ranging and the publisher’s testimony will be key in explaining this impact.
For example, an author’s work might have impacted public discourse, society or culture, or effected a change in policy (either at governmental level or elsewhere) but is also not restricted to national terms. The Award welcomes submissions that have had impact in a smaller or local way as long as publishers can provide examples of this. Such as if a nominated work about the importance of exercise for mental health had prompted a reader to start a running club in their local community, we would welcome this as an example of impact in a submission.
This decision will be made by the independent panel of judges.