Guardian leads shortlist for 2011 Orwell Prize

The Guardian leads the shortlist for this year's Orwell Prize for political journalism, with four nominations for Guardian writers in the category.

This year's shortlist – of seven, instead of the usual six – was whittled down from a longlist of 15, up from the usual 12.

The Guardian's Jenni Russell, Rachel Shabi, Declan Walsh, and Amelia Gentleman are all nominated, Gentleman for the second consecutive year. Russell is also listed for the Sunday Times and Walsh for Granta magazine.

Also nominated are Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times, Philip Collins of the Times, and Catherine Mayer of TIME magazine.

This year's judges are Jewish Chronicle political editor Martin Bright, who was shortlisted for the Journalism Prize 2007, and journalist and author Michela Wrong, who has been previously shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for all three of her books.

Director of the prize, Jean Seaton, said: "Wikileaks has shown how vital journalism is to creating public knowledge out of facts; and this year’s shortlist covers the strengths of modern reporting, out on the streets of Britain and the world, witnessing and telling important stories – and then the other end, judging, provoking, thinking."

The shortlist for the blog prize is also longer than usual, up to seven from the previous six, whittled down from a longlist of 22.

BBC blogger Paul Mason is shortlisted for the second time, having been up for the inaugural blog prize in 2009. The Heresy Corner blog, also shortlisted this year, appeared on 2009's longlist.

Other nominated bloggers include ConservativeHome's Graeme Archer and Cath Elliott, who blogs at Too Much To Say For Myself, as well as Liberal Conspiracy and Comment is Free.

The three Orwell Prizes – each worth £3,000 – are awarded to each year to a book, to journalism and to a blog which comes closest to George Orwell’s ambition "to make political writing into an art".

The prizes received a record number of entries this year, with 87 journalists and 206 bloggers entering, along with a record-equalling 212 books. The 2011 prize has a poverty theme, marking the 75th anniversary of George Orwell's journey to Wigan Pier.

Last year's winner in the journalism category was Daily Mail writer Peter Hitchens, with anonymous care worker "Winston Smith" taking the blog award.

The winners of the prizes will be announced at an awards ceremony at Church House, Westminster, on Tuesday, 17 May, 6:30pm for 7pm.

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