Wellcome Book Prize

{{short description|Literary award}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox award

| name = Wellcome Book Prize

| current_awards =

| image =

| imagesize =

| caption =

| awarded_for = topics of health and medicine in literature

| presenter =

| sponsor = Wellcome Trust

| country =

| location = United Kingdom

| year = 2009

| year2 =

| website = [http://wellcomebookprize.org/ Wellcome Book Prize]

}}

Wellcome Book Prize (2009–2019 — paused) is an annual British literary award sponsored by Wellcome Trust. In keeping with the vision and goals of Wellcome Trust, the Book Prize "celebrates the topics of health and medicine in literature",[http://www.wellcomebookprize.org/about-the-wellcome-book-prize/index.htm About the Wellcome Trust Book Prize] including fiction and non-fiction."Prize for medicine in literature." The Times (United Kingdom) [serial online]. October 11, 2012. Available from: Newspaper Source Plus, Ipswich, MA. Item: 7EH1489323595. Accessed September 30, 2012. The winner receives £30,000 making it "one of the most remunerative literature awards on offer.""New medicine book prize." The Bookseller (17 October 2008), Pg. 6 (1)). Gale Document Number: GALE|A188642463

The current prize for medicine in literature was inaugurated in 2009, but there was an older award with the same name. In 1998, Wellcome Trust began offering a prize that would enable a practicing life scientist to take time off and write a science book for the general reader.Frances M. Ashcroft. Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival. See [https://books.google.com/books?id=Nuw-IScFekMC&pg=PR15 Acknowledgments], pg.xv Applicants would submit a book outline and sample chapter, winners would then be obligated to write and publish the book. It appears the only winner was Michael J. Morgan for The Space Between Our Ears: How the Brain Represents Visual Space (2001), before the prize (for science writing) was discontinued.

From 2009 to 2012 it was called the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. In 2013 there was no award however there were changes to the prize including an increase in prize money from £25,000 to £30,000.{{cite web|url=http://www.wellcomebookprize.org/Past-prizes/2013/index.htm|title=2013: No prize awarded|year=2013|publisher=Wellcome Book Prize|access-date=2 December 2013}} The timetable of key dates is longlist in February, shortlist in March and winner in May.{{Cite web|url=https://www.readings.com.au/news/the-wellcome-book-prize-longlist-2019|title=The Wellcome Book Prize longlist 2019|website=www.readings.com.au|language=en|access-date=2019-02-06}}

In 2019, the prize announced that it had "decided to take a pause and reflect".{{cite web |url=https://wellcomebookprize.org/what-is-new/wellcome-book-prize-will-be-taking-pause |title=Wellcome Book Prize will be taking a pause |work=wellcomebookprize.org |date=21 May 2019 |access-date=25 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525232823/https://wellcomebookprize.org/what-is-new/wellcome-book-prize-will-be-taking-pause|archive-date=25 May 2019}}

Winners and shortlisted nominees

class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
scope="col"|Year

!scope="col"|Winner

!class="unsortable" scope="col"|Work

!class="unsortable" scope="col"|Shortlisted nominees

!class="unsortable" scope="col"|Ref(s)

scope="row" | 2019

|Will Eaves

|Murmur

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list |Thomas Page McBee, Amateur: A true story about what makes a man|Sandeep Jauhar, Heart: A History|Arnold Thomas Fanning, Mind on Fire: A memoir of madness and recovery||Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation|Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner: One woman’s extraordinary life in death, decay and disaster}}

|{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/19/books-about-masculinity-transphobia-wellcome-book-prize-shortlist|title=Wellcome prize shortlist celebrates books about masculinity and mental illness|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=2019-03-19|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-03-20|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2019/05/02/132435/eaves-wins-2019-wellcome-prize-for-murmur/|title=Eaves wins 2019 Wellcome Prize for 'Murmur'|date=2019-05-02|website=Books+Publishing|language=en-AU|access-date=2019-05-02}}

scope="row" | 2018

|{{sortname|Mark|O'Connell|Mark O'Connell (author)}}

|To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list |Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Stay With Me: A Novel|Lindsey Fitzharris, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine|Kathryn Mannix, With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of Denial|Sigrid Rausing, Mayhem: A Memoir|Meredith Wadman, The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease}}

|{{cite web |url=https://wellcomebookprize.org/what-is-new/shortlist-revealed-wellcome-book-prize-2018 |title=Shortlist revealed for Wellcome Book Prize 2018 |publisher=Wellcome Book Prize |date=20 March 2018 |access-date=20 March 2018}}{{cite web |url=https://wellcomebookprize.org/past-prizes/2018 |title=2018 Awards |publisher=Wellcome Book Prize |date=1 May 2018 |access-date=1 May 2018}}

scope="row" | 2017

|{{sortname|Maylis de|Kerangal}}

|Mend the Living (aka The Heart)

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life| Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History| David France, How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDS| Sarah Moss, The Tidal Zone| Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air}}

|{{cite web |url=https://wellcomebookprize.org/what-is-new/maylis-de-kerangal’s-‘mend-living’-wins-wellcome-book-prize-2017 |title=Maylis de Kerangal's 'Mend the Living' wins the Wellcome Book Prize 2017 |work=wellcomebookprize.org |date=24 April 2017 |access-date=24 April 2017}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/14/science-books-wellcome-book-prize-shortlist-2017 |title=Wellcome prize shortlist announced: books that 'will change lives' |work=The Guardian |author=Danuta Kean |date=14 March 2017 |access-date=24 April 2017}}

scope="row" | 2016

|{{sortname|Suzanne|O'Sullivan}}

|It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Amy Liptrot, The Outrun| Sarah Moss, Signs for Lost Children| Alex Pheby, Playthings| Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Last Act of Love: The Story of My Brother and His Sister| Steve Silberman, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity}}

|{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35802565 |title=Wellcome Book Prize 2016 shortlist revealed |publisher=BBC News |date=14 March 2016 |access-date=15 March 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://wellcomebookprize.org/what-is-new/its-all-your-head-suzanne-osullivan-wins-£30000-wellcome-book-prize-2016 |title='It's All in Your Head' by Suzanne O'Sullivan wins £30,000 Wellcome Book Prize 2016 |work=wellcomebookprize.org |date=25 April 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016}}

scope="row" | 2015

|{{sortname|Marion|Coutts}}

|The Iceberg: A Memoir

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Henry Marsh, Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery | Sarah Moss, Bodies of Light| Alice Roberts, The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of Us | Scott Stossel, My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind | Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows}}

|{{cite web |url=http://wellcomebookprize.org/what-is-new/wellcome-book-prize-reveals-2015-shortlist |title=The Wellcome Book Prize reveals 2015 shortlist |work=Wellcome Trust |date=9 March 2015 |access-date=10 March 2015}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32519385 |title=Tumour memoir wins £30,000 Wellcome book prize |publisher=BBC News |date=29 April 2015 |access-date=30 April 2015}}

scope="row" | 2014

|{{sortname|Andrew|Solomon}}

|Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All Things| Emily Mayhew, Wounded: From Battlefield to Blighty| Adam Rutherford, Creation: The Origin of Life| Oliver Sacks, Hallucinations| Sarah Wise, Inconvenient People}}

|{{cite web |url=http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2014/WTP055762.htm |title=Andrew Motion announces shortlist for the Wellcome Book Prize 2014 |work=Wellcome Trust |date=25 February 2014 |access-date=26 February 2014}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/feb/26/wellcome-prize-2014-shortlist-health-medicine-books |title=Wellcome Trust's Book Prize 2014 shortlist announced |work=The Guardian |author=GrrlScientist |date=26 February 2014 |access-date=26 February 2014}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/29/wellcome-book-prize-andrew-solomon-far-from-the-tree |title=Wellcome book prize goes to Andrew Solomon's Far From the Tree |work=The Guardian |author=Alison Flood |date=29 April 2014 |access-date=27 May 2014}}

scope="row" | 2013

| No award

|

|

|

scope="row" | 2012

|{{sortname|Thomas|Wright|Thomas Wright (historian)}}

| Circulation: William Harvey, a Man in Motion

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti| Peter James, Perfect People| Rose Tremain, Merivel: A Man of His Time| John M. Coates, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: Risk-taking, Gut Feelings and the Biology of Boom and Bust| Nick Coleman, The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss}}

|{{cite web |url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/random-house-gets-four-nods-wellcome-trust-book-prize.html |title=Random House gets four nods for Wellcome Trust Book Prize |work=The Bookseller |author=Charlotte Williams |date=15 October 2012 |access-date=9 November 2012}}{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9665177/Thomas-Wright-wins-Wellcome-Book-Prize.html |title=Thomas Wright wins Wellcome Book Prize |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=9 November 2012 |access-date=9 November 2012}}

scope="row" | 2011

|{{sortname|Alice|LaPlante}}

| Turn of Mind

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Philip Roth, Nemesis| Louisa Young, My Dear I Wanted to Tell You| Ann Patchett, State of Wonder| Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer| Sarah Manguso, The Two Kinds of Decay}}

| {{cite web |url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2961585-7/fulltext |title=2011 Wellcome Trust Book Prize shortlist |date=10 October 2011 |author=Joanna Bourke |work=The Lancet |access-date=30 September 2012}}"'Turn of Mind' by Alice LaPlante wins the Wellcome Trust Book Prize." (2011, Nov 10). Targeted News Service [Washington, D.C]. ProQuest document ID: 903209814"Philip Roth's polio novel among six books shortlisted for UK medical literature prize." The Canadian Press [serial online]. November 9, 2011; Available from: Newspaper Source Plus, Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 30, 2012.

scope="row" | 2010

|{{sortname|Rebecca|Skloot}}

| The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

!scope="row" |{{bulleted list | Gareth Williams, Angel of Death: The Story of Smallpox| Emma Henderson, Grace Williams Says it Loud| John Nichol, Medic: Saving Lives – from Dunkirk to Afghanistan| Lionel Shriver, So Much for That| Tim Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing}}

|{{Cite web | url = http://wellcomebookprize.org/past-prizes/2010 | publisher = Wellcome Book Prize | access-date = 27 April 2016 | title = Past Prizes – 2010}}

scope="row"| 2009

|{{sortname|Andrea|Gillies}}

| Keeper: Living with Nancy – A Journey into Alzheimer's

!scope="row"|{{bulleted list | Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone| Brian Dillon, The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives| Havi Carel, Illness (Art of Living)| Allegra Goodman, Intuition| Jonny Steinberg, Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey Through Africa's AIDS Epidemic, aka Three-Letter Plague}}

|{{Cite web | url = http://wellcomebookprize.org/past-prizes/2009 | publisher = Wellcome Book Prize | access-date = 27 April 2016 | title = Past Prizes – 2009}}

References

{{Reflist|3}}