The shortlist in six categories has been released for the 2026 James Cropper Wainwright Prize for U.K. Nature Writing, which celebrates nature, conservation, and environmental writing, spotlighting "the growing genre of nature writing and inspire readers to connect more deeply with the natural world." Check out the shortlisted titles here.
Winners will be named at an awards ceremony on September 17. In addition to the six individual category winners, two titles will be honored as the overall winners: one for adult writing and one for children's writing. These will be chosen from the respective category winners and will be celebrated as the Wainwright Prize Book of the Year and the Wainwright Children's Prize Book of the Year. Both overall winners will receive £2,500 (about $3,365), with the remaining category winners each awarded £500 (about $670).
Of this year's shortlist, Wainwright Prize ambassador and 2026 host, Henry Bird, said: "Each of the categories for this year's Wainwright Prize reflects the remarkable breadth of stories and ideas explored through environmental literature. Over the past few weeks of reading, I've traversed bogs and scaled treetops, been transported thousands of years into the past and generations ahead to the future, felt pangs of despair at what this world has lost and glimmers of hope at what it stands to gain. With the natural world in crisis, I'd go so far as to say that we need these books, now more than ever."