The Orwell Prize 2018 is now open until 11th January 2018 for entries in the Journalism and Exposing Britain's Social Evils categories

Enter the Prize   Entries invited for The Orwell Prize 2018 The Orwell Prize, worth £3,000 to each winner, is Britain's most prestigious prize for political writing, awarded to work which comes the closest to George Orwell's ambition 'to make political writing into an art'. The Orwell Foundation awards prizes for journalism and 'exposing Britain's social evils'. Previous winners include Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole, freelance foreign reporter Iona Craig and author Nicci Gerrard. The Orwell Prize for Journalism will be judged by Sir David Bell, Professor Suzanne Franks and Elinor Goodman, while The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils will be judged by Farrah Storr (Editor, Cosmopolitan), Campbell Robb (CEO, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) and Felicity Lawrence.  The winners will be announced at the Prize Ceremony on 25th June 2017, where each winner will receive £3,000 and a trophy designed and made by students at Goldsmiths. Journalists may self submit, or publications may submit on their behalf using the online form. Do you know anyone who should enter? Send them our way.       Entry is free, and individuals may enter either or both categories. Entries must have a link to the UK or Ireland and be published in the calendar year 2017: see our rules for more details. Last year's winners were Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole for Journalism and Felicity Lawrence for Exposing Britain's Social Evils. A full record of previous winners, shortlists and longlists can be found on The Orwell Prize website.

The Orwell Prize for Journalism is awarded for sustained reportage and/or commentary. All submissions should consist of three items. There should be a written element to all articles, and entrants may include work published by different organisations. Entrants may self-submit, or be submitted by an editor.  The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils, sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, rewards original, insightful, and impactful reporting on social issues in the UK. Entries should consist of a story that has enhanced the public understanding of social problems and public policy.

Enter the Prize     My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice... I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing. But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long magazine article, if it were not also an aesthetic experience….  George Orwell Why I Write     Orwell's Values