2026 Orwell Prize

The 2026 Orwell Prizes for books were announced on June 25, 2026, at a ceremony at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London held as part of University College London's bicentenary. Karen Bartlett won the Political Writing prize for The Escape from Kabul, an account of Afghan women judges who fled after the Taliban returned to power. Ben Lerner won the Political Fiction prize for his short novel Transcription. Each prize had eight finalists, and the nonfiction judges observed that most of their finalists were first books. Between them, the two lists took in the war in Ukraine, Iran's protest movement, Israel and Palestine, and state control of technology. Rohan Silva chaired the Political Writing panel and Fiammetta Rocco chaired the Political Fiction panel. Andrey Kurkov, a Political Writing finalist, also received the foundation's rarely given Special Prize that evening.