Carrie Gracie shortlisted for 2026 Unwin Award
During 2018, 2019 and 2020, I worked with BBC journalist Carrie Gracie helping her create her book Equal: How we fix the gender pay gap (Virago 2019 - published by the wonderful Sarah Savitt). I had approached Carrie to offer book representation after seeing her give evidence to Parliament about her experience of the gender pay gap at the BBC, and being in awe of her courage. It turned out that the courage I was seeing there was only the tip of the iceberg. Her bravery and determination have been so salutary for me in my life, and it is brilliant to see her among shortlisted writers for the 2026 Unwin Award.
The award, administered by the Publishers Association, recognises non-fiction writers in the earlier stages of their careers as authors, whose work is considered to have made a significant contribution to the world. The Unwin Award Judging Panel 2026 praised the ways in which Gracie’s well-written manual offers advice for how others might address this issue, as well as inspiring and emboldening more to stand up for themselves and to ask tough questions. The winner will be revealed at a ceremony held at The Royal Institution in London on 21 April, where Caroline Criado-Perez, last year’s inaugural winner of the prize, will deliver the Unwin Award Lecture, focussing on the value that publishing brings to society.
It is moving to read here a powerful review of Equal written by the late Rachel Clarke and published in the Observer when the book came out in 2019.
The other shortlisted books are:
Hannah Barnes, author of Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children
Hannah Ritchie , author of Not The End of the World and Clearing the Air
Frances Ryan, author of Who Wants Normal?: The Disabled Girls’ Guide to Life and Crippled: Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People
Keon West, author of The Science of Racism: Everything you need to know but probably don’t – yet
Sarah Wynn-Williams, author of Careless People
Thank you so much to judges Claudia Hammond, Sarfraz Manzoor and Caroline Sanderson.