Pankaj Mishra is the 2024 recipient of the Weston International Award. The prize recognises the career achievement of an international author for nonfiction work. Mishra, who is known for his writing on the Global South, Western imperialism in Asia and contemporary spirituality, will receive a cash prize of $75,000. This prize is a companion to the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, which is awarded annually to a Canadian author for a single work of nonfiction.
To be considered for the award, authors must have published at least three books of outstanding literary merit, in the genre of nonfiction, that are written in English or else widely available in translation. Mishra has written eight books of nonfiction, including Age of Anger, From the Ruins of Empire and Butter Chicken in Ludhiana among others, and two novels, The Romantics and Run and Hide.
“Through a compelling and essential body of work that braids memoir, philosophy, history, sociology and criticism, Mishra proves he is a master of disassembling and uplifting magmatic argument and pressing issues of identity, nationalism and belonging,” said the jury about his writing.
Mishra was selected by an international advisory committee and a Canadian jury. The advisory committee is comprised of UK-based broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, writer Pico Iyer, and historian, biographer and journalist Sam Tanenhaus. Meanwhile, the Canadian jury comprised author and naturalist Trevor Herriot, author Helen Humphreys, author and environmental historian Jessica J Lee, writer Kyo Maclear, and author, journalist and editor Harley Rustad.
Mishra will address an audience at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on September 16 to discuss his career and work.
