01 March 2024
The judges of the Profile Books and Alexander Aitken Ideas Prize are delighted to announce the longlist for the 2023 Ideas Prize. Now in its fourth year, The Ideas Prize is an award for the best debut trade non-fiction proposal from an academic. Izzy Everington, Editorial Director at Profile Books, commented: ‘We have seen an extraordinary range and breadth of submissions this year, and the quality has been astounding. Many thanks to all who applied, and a huge congratulations to our longlisted authors: each of your submissions was filled with ambition, creativity and panache.’
The 10 longlisted authors and their submissions are as follows:
Anna McKay for ShipShapes: The Transformation and Afterlives of Britain’s Ships
University of Liverpool
Antonia Thomas for Following the Old Red
University of the Highlands and Islands
Danni Holmes for Wonders of the Quantum World
University of New South Wales
Freya Gowrley for Unseemly: A Visual History of the Fat Body
University of Bristol
Hannah Ishmael for (Im)possible Archives: History Making and Unmaking in Black London
Kings College London
Heather Prince for The Rise and Fall of the Sea
University of Cumbria
Jade French for Crone Magic: How Four Women Aged Beyond Surrealism
Loughborough University
Liz David-Barrett for Power Grab: The Rise of State Capture
University of Sussex
Stijn Van Ewijk for The Life Cycle Logic
University College London
Thomas Keegan for Porton Down and the Search for Epidemiological Truth
Lancaster Medical School
Congratulations to those who have been longlisted, and many thanks to all who entered. The shortlist will be announced towards the end of March.
The Ideas Prize was first launched in 2019, and offers a £25,000 book contract with Profile Books, as well as representation with Aitken Alexander Associates, to the winning book proposal.