Kei Miller is on the shortlist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2021 announced on Friday, October 15, 2021.
The Baillie Gifford Prize rewards excellence in non-fiction writing, bringing the best in intelligent reflection on the world to new readers. The award, founded in 1999 as the Samuel Johnson Prize, covers all non-fiction in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts. Some of the previous winners have been Craig Brown, Hallie Rubenhold, Serhii Plokhii, and David France.
The judges for this year’s edition are Sunday Times literary editor Andrew Holgate who chairs alongside award winning novelist Sara Collins, the physicist, oceanographer, writer and broadcaster Dr Helen Czerski, the biographer and critic Kathryn Hughes, author and TV and radio presenter Johny Pitts, and historian and writer Dominic Sandbrook. The longlist for the award was made public on September 9, 2021.
They have revealed the shortlist for the award today which includes Things I Have Withheld an essay collection by award-winning poet and novelist Kei Miller. Things I Have Withheld examines the silence in which so many important things are kept. Miller powerfully and imaginatively recounts everyday acts of racism and prejudice and challenges us to interrogate what seems unsayable and why – our actions, defence mechanisms, imaginations and interactions – and those of the world around us.
Kei Miller revealed the announcement on his social media saying, “So this just happened – and yes, ya’ll called it and declared it before I dared believe it. Things I Have Withheld has made it to the shortlist for the so called Booker Prize of Non-Fiction. #BaillieGifford”
The winner will be revealed on November 16, 2021.
