The Wainwright Prize, the UK’s foremost nature and conservation writing awards, today announced their 2026 shortlists. The awards showcase writing that reflects the values of its namesake, Alfred Wainwright: the celebration of nature and our environment, nurturing respect for our planet, and informing readers of the threats that the earth currently faces. This year’s dynamic shortlist consists of books exploring nature in a variety of ways, with many celebrating the intelligence of the natural world from migrating whales and trees as living communities, to the tiny lives of insects and complex fungi networks.
Prize winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday 17th September 2026 at the spectacular Elmley Nature Reserve in Kent, hosted by Wainwright Prize ambassador and The Times journalist and environmental writer Henry Bird. In addition to the six individual category winners, two exceptional titles will be honoured as the overall winners of The Wainwright Prize: 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 2026 Wainwright Prize Book of the Year and the 2026 Wainwright Children’s Prize Book of the Year. Both overall winners will receive £2,500, with the remaining category winners each awarded £500.
Of this year’s shortlist, Wainwright Prize ambassador and 2026 host, Henry Bird, says: “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.”
The 2026 shortlists (alphabetical by author surname) are:
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing shortlist is:
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing shortlist is:
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Illustrative Books shortlist is:
The 2026 Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction shortlist is:
The 2026 Children’s Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist is:
The 2026 Children’s Wainwright Prize for Picture Books shortlist is:
THE SHORTLISTS IN MORE DETAIL
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing shortlist
The 2026 shortlist for The Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing includes a diverse range of titles, each offering a unique perspective on our relationship with the natural world. Both Harriet Rix’s The Genius of Trees and Luke Barley’s Ancient: Reviving the Woods that Made Britain, pay tribute to trees and how they’ve shaped the world, and how people have shaped them. Lucy Lapwing takes us on a journey as she explores the wonders of the natural world and the feelings that come from its current decline in her book Love Is a Toad, whilst Fiona Robertson’s Stone Lands is a deeply personal memoir about grief through the lens of ancient landscapes and enduring megaliths, illustrated by Philip Harris. The Cuckoo’s Lea by Michael J. Warren is an exploration of the etymology of old place names and the birds who have influenced their nomenclature. Two books look at the way we work the land, with Nicola Chester studying her own desire to become a farmer in Ghosts of the Farm: Two Women’s Journeys Through Time, Land and Community, and James Fox travelling the length of Britain to seek out craftspeople and their creative connection to the material world we inhabit in his book, Craftland.
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing shortlist
The 2026 shortlist for The Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing showcases a powerful collection of books that explore the intersection of conservation, science, and the environment. In Eat the Planet Well: How to fix our toxic food system – one meal at a time, Dave Goulson offers a practical guide to eating more sustainably, and in Every Last Fish: What Fish Do for Us and What We Do to Them, Rose George investigates the world’s vast fishing trade. Dr Julia Shaw reconstructs the minds of the perpetrators of some of the worst environmental crimes of our time in Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet, and How to Stop Them, whilst Joe Harkness investigates the minds of neurodiverse people in nature-based roles, explores their skills, perspectives and the passions they bring to the sector in his book, Neurodivergent, by Nature. Scott Weidensaul documents the uplifting story of the success of bird conservation in The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet, and Suzanne Simard examines how regenerative forestry can help solve the global climate crisis in her book When the Forest Breathes. Cal Flyn examines what nature gets up to in the absence of humans in their book The Savage Landscape: How We Made the Wilderness.
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Illustrative Books shortlist
The 2026 Wainwright Prize for Illustrative Books shortlist celebrates the dynamic intersection of art, storytelling, and environmental insight. This year’s finalists include two books looking at Earth’s waterways through photography; Freshwater: The View from Above and the Life Below by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Bill François and Waterlands: The Coastal Areas of West Sussex and Hampshire Borders by David Gilbey, illustrated by Molly Martin with original photography by Roo Lewis. Alison Pouliot’s Funga Obscura: Photo Journeys Among Fungi is an unforgettable visual journey through the kingdom of fungi, whilst In Botanical Time: The Extraordinary Lifespans of the World’s Oldest Living Plants by Christopher Woods is a fascinating collection looking at how human cultures have interacted with plants over time. Jackie Morris is shortlisted twice in this category, once with Robert Macfarlane for their compendium of endangered bird species, The Book of Birds, and once with Tamsin Abbott with their book of illustrated fables on transformation and power, inspired by the natural world, Wild Folk: Tales from the Stones.
The 2026 Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction shortlist
The shortlist for The Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction celebrates nature storytelling that inspires young readers to connect with the natural world, with this year spotlighting a particular focus on relationships with animals. Anthony McGowan’s Birdlands, illustrated by Keith Robinson, and Sophie Kirtley’s Swanfall both feature thrilling adventures with birds, whilst The Waters and the Wild by Eilish Fisher, illustrated by David Rooney, depicts the meaning of home through connection with a wild horse. Hannah Gold is shortlisted for a second year in a row with her latest book The Lone Husky, illustrated by Levi Pinfold, a breathtaking tale of an arctic dog sledding adventure. For Young Adult readers, debut author and beekeeper Caryl Lewis is shortlisted for The Danger of Small Things, set in a dystopian world where bees have died out and young women are forced to marry young and pollinate crops by hand. Two titles on this shortlist showcase the botanical natural world, Piers Torday’s unforgettable fable Tree Thing, illustrated by Matthew Taylor Wilson, that celebrates the importance of trees and one child’s bravery to protect them, with Cornelia Funke and Tammi Hartung writing an enchanting tale featuring botanical riddles, The Green Kingdom, beautifully illustrated by Melissa Castrillón. M. G. Leonard also joins this shortlist with The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales from The Wind in the Willows, a charming collection of stories that breathes fresh life into a much-loved classic, illustrated by Polly Dunbar.
The 2026 Children’s Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist
The shortlist for The Children’s Wainwright Prize for Non-Fiction celebrates engaging books that deepen young readers’ curiosity about the natural world. This year’s selection includes A Wild Child’s Guide to Nature at Night by former winner Dara McAnulty, illustrated by Barry Falls, an eye-opening tour of nocturnal nature in Britain and Ireland, and Dr Jess French’s beautiful collection that zooms into the miniature world of insects and bugs, An Anthology of Remarkable Bugs. Letters from Wonderland by Josie George, illustrated by Becky Thorns, is an immersive exploration of the magic of the natural world, and Shapes of Nature by last year’s category winner, Ben Hoare, looks at the hidden shapes and details we often overlook in nature. The final three books on the shortlist consider nature through a historical lens, with Kate Winter’s The Cave Explorer spotlighting prehistoric cave paintings, and Thomas Halliday travelling back to the dawn of life to explore worlds that were here before our own in his book, Otherlands: An Illustrated Journey Through Earth’s Lost Worlds, illustrated by Gavin Scott. Jules Howard uses an innovative choose-your own path format to look at evolution, combining epic facts with gripping nature in Choose Your Own Evolution, illustrated by Gordy Wright.
The 2026 Children’s Wainwright Prize for Picture Books shortlist
The shortlist for The Children’s Wainwright Prize for Picture Books brings together a beautifully illustrated and imaginative collection of stories that introduce younger readers to the wonders of the natural world. Two shortlisted books feature whales, with Yuval Zommer’s, The Whale that Sings in the Deep illustrating the long migratory journey of a solitary blue whale, and Whale Song by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Britta Teckentrup, following the story of one whale’s song as it spreads across the world’s ocean. Three titles celebrate the sun and sky; The Sun Thief by Alice Hemming and illustrated by Nicola Slater stars a squirrel on a mission to find out who steals the sun each night, and Firefly by previous Wainwright Prize winner Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Luke Adam Hawker, follows a sun-seeking child who discovers a meadow illuminated by fireflies. Isla and the Sky by Greg Stobbs is a beautiful tale weaving emotion and the weather and tells the story of a young girl’s love for Sky, and the importance of Sky’s rainfall. A River Running Through You by Amy-Jane Beer, illustrated by Elin Manon, is a mesmerising reflection on our place within nature, whilst Annie Booker’s The Great Bear is a hopeful take about the power of nature. The Summer Puppy by Jackie Morris and Cathy Fisher follows a young puppy called Rosie as she grows, learns and explores her world.
The 2026 shortlists were selected by an academy made up of independent booksellers, specialist nature reviewers, and authors from across the UK. To select this year’s winners, new panels will take over to judge each of the six categories, bringing together a breadth of expertise across environmental journalism and media, conservation, science, literature, education, and the creative industries. The Head Judges for the six categories are:
More information on the judges and judging process can be found here.