Know a reporter who should enter this year's Orwell Prizes? Forward this.

The Orwell Journalism Prizes close for entries 31 March

If you’ve done powerful work this year, or know someone who has, The Orwell Prizes are where it should be recognised. From social reporting to dispatches from the front line, if you know a journalist whose work deserves to be in the running, forward this to them. The best work shouldn’t go uncelebrated for want of an entry.

Also in this newsletter:

Join usin London, 23 March, for the launch of the first complete edition of the letters of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's wifeHighlights from the launch of Orwell & Truth in New York

Orwell in the news: recent quotes and misquotes

*The stories that matter deserve recognition *

*Britain’s most prestigious journalism awards are free to enter, open to all media, and welcome self-nomination as well as editor nominations. *

Our flagship Orwell Prize for Journalism accepts three to four pieces of reportage or commentary across any combination of media. The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, now sponsored by Prospect Magazine, rewards sustained investigative work on issues like poverty, housing, disability and welfare.

And the Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness, reserved to journalists in the first eight years of their careers, and sponsored by the Centre for Homelessness Impact, welcomes impactful, evidence-based reporting on homelessness in all its forms.

All entries close Tuesday 31 March, for work published 1 April 2025—31 March 2026.

Eileen O’Shaughnessy, in Her Own Words | University College London, 23 March

Join the editor Angela Smith, The Orwell Foundation and UCL Special Collections for the launch of the first exclusive annotated collection of the letters of Eileen O’Shaughnessy, Orwell’s wife.

The evening will feature an exclusive talk by Smith exploring Eileen’s fascinating relationship with the BBC, alongside materials from the UNESCO-Registered Orwell Archive on display. Copies of the book will be available for purchase refreshments will be provided, and there will be plenty of opportunity to mingle with fellow Orwell enthusiasts, Orwell scholars and the Foundation team.

‘Orwell and Truth’, delves into George Orwell’s warnings about the lure of propaganda | NYU 4 March - 1 Dec 2026

Our new exhibition, ‘Orwell and Truth’, is now open to the public at New York University’s Kimmel Windows, in the heart of Greenwich Village, NY. Curated in partnership with University College London, home of the UNESCO-registered Orwell Archive, the exhibition examines how Orwell developed the interests, experience and characteristics that made him this most exceptional of writers.

“Orwell and Truth: On the Life and Legacy of Author George Orwell” will be on display along LaGuardia Place and West 3rd Street, until December 2026.

Orwell in the news

A US federal judge has invoked Orwell in a

recent ruling, comparing the removal of references to slavery from a Philadelphia historical site to the Ministry of Truth inNineteen Eighty-Four. District Judge Cynthia Rufe quoted the fictional agency's motto ("Ignorance Is Strength") in an order requiring the National Park Service to restore exhibits about enslaved people at the President's House on Independence Mall, which had been stripped out in January. "The federal government," she wrote, "does not have the power to dissemble and disassemble historical truths."In March 2026, outgoing U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quoted what she called a remark "often attributed to George Orwell" — "People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." She was right to hedge: the quote does not appear anywhere in Orwell's work, and

serious researchershave found no evidence he ever wrote it, though he made some superficially similar remarks.

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