Baillie Gifford Prize Names 13-Book Longlist for 2026
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction has unveiled its 2026 longlist, selecting 13 books from a field of more than 350 eligible titles published in the United Kingdom between 1 November 2025 and 31 October 2026 (Publishing Perspectives).
The prize, the UK's most prominent award for nonfiction writing, is open to writers of any nationality working in any subject area, provided their book is published in English in the UK during the entry year. Translated works are eligible, and where a translated book wins, the £50,000 purse is shared between author and translator.
Among the longlisted titles is Nicholas Boggs's Baldwin: A Love Story, a biography of the American writer James Baldwin, published by Bloomsbury Circus. The list also includes Patrick Radden Keefe's London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth (Picador, Pan Macmillan) and Charlotte Higgins's Ukrainian Lessons: Art in a Time of War (Jonathan Cape, Penguin Random House).
The remaining longlisted books span revolution, wartime survival and a Parisian murder. Anand Gopal's Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Revolution (Pluto Press), Ian Buruma's Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939–1945 (Atlantic Books) and Edward Chisholm's Murder in Paris '68: A True Story of Death and Glamour (Monoray, Octopus Publishing Group) round out the named titles.
The longlist was chosen by a panel of five independent judges that changes each year. The 2026 jury consists of Bea Carvalho, Dr Tiffany Jenkins, Sam Leith, Ravi Mattu and Elif Shafak, who were announced when submissions opened on 13 April 2026 (Blavatnik Foundation). Entries closed on 5 June. The judges read through the summer to arrive at the 13-book longlist announced on 3 September (The Baillie Gifford Prize).
Publishing Perspectives, reporting the longlist, noted the breadth of the field — over 350 books were submitted for consideration, covering history, biography, memoir, politics and the arts.
The prize calendar now moves quickly. A shortlist of six titles will be announced on 1 October, and the winner will be named at a ceremony on 4 November 2026. The winning author receives £50,000; each shortlisted author receives £1,000.
The Baillie Gifford Prize, sponsored by the Edinburgh-based investment management firm Baillie Gifford, has been awarded annually since 1999. Past winners include Margaret MacMillan, Craig Brown and, most recently in 2025, the prize went to a field that continues to attract writers from across the globe.
What gives this year's longlist its character is the mix of household-name authors and independent presses. Pluto Press and Monoray sit alongside imprints of Penguin Random House and Pan Macmillan — a reminder that a nonfiction prize can lift a small house onto the same shelf as the largest players in the trade.
