Winners have been named for the 2020 Orwell Prizes, which reward work that comes closest to achieving George Orwell's ambition to "make political writing into an art." Each winner in the four categories receives £3,000 (about $3,760).
Colson Whitehead won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction for The Nickel Boys, which the judging panel called an "expertly crafted historical novel," adding that it "is as convincing in its character portrayal as it is unsparing in its depiction of corruption and racial brutality. All the while it provides unimpeachable evidence that human dignity and love can provide a beacon for transforming lives that's ultimately more powerful and enduring than violence."
The Orwell Prize for Political Writing went to Kate Clanchy for Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. The judges commented: "In this book, a brilliantly honest writer tackles a subject that ties so many people up in knots--education and how it is inexorably dominated by class. Yet this is the very opposite of a worthy lecture: Clanchy's reflections on teaching and the stories of her students are moving, funny, full of love and offer sparkling insights into modern British society."
In the journalism categories, Ian Birrell won the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils and the Orwell Prize for Journalism went to Janice Turner.