Wainwright Prize

The Wainwright Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of general outdoors, nature and UK-based travel writing. In 2020 it was split into The Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing and The Wainwright Prize for writing on global conservation, with separate longlists and judging panels. It is restricted to books published in the UK.[1]

It celebrates the legacy of British guidebook writer Alfred Wainwright. The prize was established by Frances Lincoln Publishers and The Wainwright Society, in association with The National Trust. It was originally sponsored by Thwaites Brewery, who produced a beer called Wainwright Ale[2] and was later sponsored by Marston's Brewery, who took over Thwaites' production of Wainwright Golden Beer, and sometimes referred to as The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize.[3] In 2020 the prize was no longer sponsored, but was supported by an anonymous benefactor and was "in association with the National Trust".[1]

The prize was first awarded in 2014 to Hugh Thomson for his The Green Road Into The Trees: A Walk through England. The winner receives a cheque for £5,000. With the introduction of two prizes in 2020 the prize money is shared between the two winners.[1]

Winners

In the following table, the years correspond to the date of the ceremony, rather than when the book was first published. Entries with a blue background and an asterisk (*) next to the writer's name have won the award; those with a pale background are the other nominees on the shortlist.

  *   Winners

Year	Author	Novel	Publisher	Notes
2014[4]	Hugh Thomson *	The Green Road Into The Trees: A Walk through England
	Simon Armitage	Walking Home
	Patrick Barkham	Badgerlands
	Charlotte Higgins	Under Another Sky
	Robert Macfarlane	The Old Ways
	Esther Woolfson	Field Notes from a Hidden City
2015[5]	John Lewis-Stempel *	Meadowland[6]
	Richard Askwith	Running Free: A Runner's Journey Back to Nature
	William Atkins	The Moor
	Mark Cocker	Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet
	Helen Macdonald	H is for Hawk
	Philip Marsden	Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place
2016[7]	Amy Liptrot*	The Outrun[8]
	Rob Cowen	Common Ground
	Robert Macfarlane	Landmarks
	Michael McCarthy	The Moth Snowstorm
	Katharine Norbury	The Fish Ladder
	James Rebanks	The Shepherd's Life
2017[9]	John Lewis-Stempel *	Where Poppies Blow
	Madeleine Bunting	Love of Country
	Simon Cooper	The Otters' Tale
	John Lewis-Stempel	The Running Hare
	Stephen Moss	Wild Kingdom
	Christopher Somerville	The January Man
	Clover Stroud	The Wild Other
2018[10]	Adam Nicolson *	The Seabird's Cry
	Neil Ansell	The Last Wilderness
	Alys Fowler	Hidden Nature
	John Grindrod	Outskirts
	John Lister-Kaye	The Dun Cow Rib
	Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris	The Lost Words
	Raynor Winn	The Salt Path
2019[11]	Robert Macfarlane *	Underland
	Julia Blackburn	Time Song
	Juliet Blaxland	The Easternmost House
	Mark Cocker	Our Place
	Kate Humble	Thinking on My Feet
	Isabella Tree	Wilding
	Luke Turner	Out of the Woods
2020: Global Cons'n [12]	winner tba 9 Sept 2020
	Chris Goodall	What We Need to Do Now
	Julian Hoffman	Irreplaceable
	Benedict Macdonald	Rebirding: Restoring Britain's Wildlife
	Helen Pilcher	Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth
	Jeremy Purseglove	Working With Nature
	Carolyn Steel	Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World
2020: UK Nature Writing [13]	winner tba 9 Sept 2020
	Lamorna Ash	Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town
	David Gange	The Frayed Atlantic Edge
	Patrick Laurie	Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape
	Dara McAnulty	Diary of a Young Naturalist
	Mike Parker	On the Red Hill
	Jini Reddy	Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape
	Brigit Strawbridge Howard	Dancing with Bees: A Journey Back to Nature

References

1. "Submissions for the 2020 Awards". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
2. "The prize celebrates the legacy of British nature writer Alfred Wainwright". Retrieved 2015-02-14.
3. "Home page". The Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize. Archived from the original on 26 February 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
4. "Shortlist 2014". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
5. "Shortlist 2015". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
6. "New Literary Prize for Nature & Travel Writing about Britain Launched". thebookseller.com. thebookseller.com. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
7. "Shortlist 2016". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
8. "The Outrun by Amy Liptrot wins The Wainwright Golden Beer Prize 2016". wainwrightprize.com. wainwrightprize.com. Retrieved 5 Aug 2016.
9. "Shortlist 2017". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
10. "Shortlist 2018". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
11. "Shortlist 2019". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
12. "2020 Writing on Global Conservation shortlist". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
13. "2020 UK Nature Writing shortlist". The Wainwright Prize. Retrieved 31 July 2020.

External links

• Official website