The Royal Society of Literature and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation offer three annual awards, one of £10,000 and two of £5,000, to authors engaged on their first major commissioned works of non-fiction.

Apply for the 2010 Awards

Entrants must be citizens of either the UK or Ireland, or have been residents in one of these for at least the last three years.

Applications must be accompanied by:
— A letter from the entrant giving a brief synopsis of the book proposal, an outline of what work on the book remains outstanding, and an indication of financial circumstances.
— A supporting letter from the publishing editor.
— A copy of the publishing contract.

The entry form for the 2010 awards is now available.

The 2009 Awards

The 2009 awards were won by Caspar Henderson, Miles Hollingworth and Selina Mills.
 
Caspar Henderson received a cheque for £10,000 for his 21st-century bestiary, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, due from Granta in 2011.
 
One of two £5,000 awards was won by Miles Hollingworth for St Augustine: an Intellectual Biography, due from Continuum in 2012.
 
Selina Mills also won a £5,000 award for her personal (the author is slowing losing her sight) and social history Life Unseen: How Blindness Shaped the West, due from I B Taurus in 2011.
 
The judges for the 2009 awards were Mark Bostridge, Ferdinand Mount and Claire Tomalin.

Past recipients