Guantánamo Diary author makes Samuel Johnson prize longlist

Mohamedou Ould Slahi among a dozen writers including Jonathan Bate and Robert MacFarlane in contention for £20,000 non-fiction prize

Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s brother Yahdih holds a copy of Guantánamo Diary, which is on the Samuel Johnson prize longlist, at the book’s unveiling earlier this year. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Alison Flood - The Guardian - Tuesday 22 September 2015

Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s diary detailing the torture he experienced while imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay has made the longlist for the Samuel Johnson prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for non-fiction.

Held in Guantánamo since 2002, despite never being charged with a crime, Slahi began to write a diary three years into his captivity. Described as an “extraordinary account of rendition, captivity and torture” by Pankaj Mishra in the Guardian, the Mauritanian’s memoir, published as Guantánamo Diary, is among 12 titles in contention for the £20,000 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, alongside works including an unauthorised biography of Ted Hughes by Jonathan Bate, and Robert MacFarlane’s Landmarks, an exploration of how language shapes our sense of place.

More