Andrey Kurkov wins Orwell Special Prize 2026

On Thursday, June 25, the 2026 Orwell Prizes ceremony took place at University College London. The awards honour writing of political insight and literary quality, selecting works that, in the spirit of George Orwell, seek to turn political writing into an art form.

We are delighted to announce that this year’s Orwell Special Prize—an honour bestowed only eight times since its creation in 1977—has been awarded to our Ukrainian writer Andrey KURKOV, published in Italy by Keller and Marsilio. His prose, spare and lucid, often shaded with dark humour and a gently surreal realism, has drawn comparisons with Murakami, Kafka, Bulgakov, and Vonnegut. It now finds an additional echo in Orwell himself, for Kurkov’s singular ability to weave the political into the texture of everyday life.

At the ceremony, Kurkov spoke of a long-standing sense of proximity to Orwell, whose works he first encountered in clandestine translations during the years in which they were banned in the Soviet Union. He recognizes himself not only in the familiarity of the situations he has lived through, but also—unexpectedly—“in the thoughts and in the way of looking at reality, shaped by his influence.”

From the jury’s statement: "Tonight, we are honoured to have with us the greatest living writer of his nation. As Orwell did, he writes across fiction, non-fiction and journalism. Readers across the world marvel at the beauty of his storytelling and the horrors of the war he describes. Today, people going about their daily lives in Sudan, Gaza, Myanmar and many more besides – are sadly familiar with the realities of war. And so too, of course, are our European neighbours in Ukraine. Nobody has documented their daily struggle – and the resilience, humour and togetherness emerging from it – as well as Andrey Kurkov. Alongside his diaries and essays, his novels –  from the brilliant Death and the Penguin to his recent trilogy set in pre-Revolutionary Kyiv – constitute one of the finest bodies of work in contemporary literature. Orwell’s warnings against the dangers of totalitarianism and war read today as though they were written yesterday. Similarly, we believe Andrey’s books and journalism will endure.”