LONDON (AP) 鈥� Author-activist won the inaugural on Thursday with 鈥淒oppelganger,鈥� a personal account of her plunge into the world of online misinformation.
Its sister award, the Women鈥檚 Prize for Fiction, went to U.S. writer V. V. Ganeshananthan for her novel 鈥淏rotherless Night,鈥� about a family torn apart by Sri Lanka鈥檚 long civil war. Both come with 30,000 pounds ($38,000) in prize money.
Both winners referenced the conflict-clouded international situation, at a time when the arts world is grappling with divisions over the and corporate sponsorship of the arts.
Klein, author of 鈥淣o Logo鈥� and 鈥淭he Shock Doctrine,鈥� delves into her experience being mistaken for Naomi Wolf, author of 鈥淭he Beauty Myth鈥� and more recently a promulgator of anti-vaxx ideas and other conspiracy theories. Part memoir and part reportage, 鈥淒oppelganger鈥� 鈥� subtitled 鈥淎 Trip into the Mirror World鈥� 鈥� investigates how online life has distorted reality, and asks what might be done about it.
Historian Suzannah Lipscomb, who headed a panel of judges for the nonfiction award, called Klein鈥檚 book 鈥渁 courageous, humane and optimistic call-to-arms that moves us beyond black and white, beyond Right and Left.鈥�
Klein thanked the prize for 鈥渘ot shying away from controversy.鈥� She has backed calls for book festivals to stop taking money from companies with investments in fossil fuels or Israel鈥檚 defense sector, a campaign that has led to U.K. events cancelling funding from finance firm Baillie Gifford.
Some argue that starves the arts of much-needed funds, but Klein said she 鈥渨anted to use the platform to call for more courage from cultural institutions.鈥�
Ganeshananthan鈥檚 victorious second novel, which traces an aspiring medic鈥檚 journey through the brutality and moral uncertainties of war, took almost two decades to complete. Novelist Monica Ali, who chaired the fiction judging panel, said 鈥淏rotherless Night鈥� is 鈥渁 brilliant, compelling and deeply moving novel that bears witness to the intimate and epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war.鈥�
Ganeshananthan鈥檚 first novel, 鈥淟ove Marriage,鈥� was published in 2008, and she started 鈥淏rotherless Night鈥� in 2004. She said writing historical fiction 鈥渃arefully and thoughtfully鈥� about a traumatic conflict well within living memory that was true to people鈥檚 experience was 鈥渉ard work.鈥�
鈥淚t took such a long time because of the chorus of people it was necessary to talk to,鈥� she said.
She said that faced with conflicts like the Israel-Hamas war, 鈥渨hat can writing do? Hopefully push people to collective actual action.鈥�
The nonfiction award was launched this year to help fix the gender imbalance in the publishing world, where men buy more nonfiction than women 鈥� and write more prize-winning nonfiction books.
Prize organizers say that in 2022, only 26.5% of nonfiction books reviewed in Britain鈥檚 newspapers were by women, and male writers dominated established nonfiction writing prizes.
Both fiction and nonfiction prizes are open to female English-language writers from any country.
The fiction prize was founded in 1996, and past winners include Zadie Smith, and , who won last year for 鈥淒emon Copperhead.鈥�
The Associated Press
