Ved Mehta Prize in Creative Nonfiction: Six shortlisted titles for the inaugural £10,000 prize

The inaugural Ved Mehta Prize in Creative Nonfiction has announced its six-book shortlist. The prize, instituted by the family of Ved Mehta; the Centre for the Creative and the Critical, Ashoka University; and Balliol College, Oxford University, recognises an outstanding work of creative nonfiction published in English anywhere in the world during the preceding year.

The prize, awarded by a different panel of three judges each year, seeks to expand the international profile of creative nonfiction, honouring books distinguished by their intellectual ambition, breadth, imagination, experimentation, and excellence of prose.

The prize includes an award of £10,000. The location of the award ceremony will alternate between Balliol College, Oxford, and Ashoka University. This year’s winner will be invited to attend a ceremony at Balliol College on November 27.

The judges for this year’s prize are academic and critic Merve Emre, academic Seamus Perry, and writer Vijay Seshadri.

Here is the complete shortlist:

• The Mind Electric: Stories of the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains, Pria Anand

• Charlottesville: A Story of Rage and Resistance, Deborah Baker

• Bibliophobia: A Memoir, Sarah Chihaya

• Homework: A Memoir, Geoff Dyer

• Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li

• Greyhound, Joanna Pocock

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