# Wellcome Book Prize

Wellcome Book Prize (2009–2019 — paused) is an annual British literary award sponsored by Wellcome Trust. In keeping with the vision and goals of Wellcome Trust, the Book Prize "celebrates the topics of health and medicine in literature", including fiction and non-fiction. The winner receives £30,000 making it "one of the most remunerative literature awards on offer."
The current prize for medicine in literature was inaugurated in 2009, but there was an older award with the same name. In 1998, Wellcome Trust began offering a prize that would enable a practicing life scientist to take time off and write a science book for the general reader. Applicants would submit a book outline and sample chapter, winners would then be obligated to write and publish the book. It appears the only winner was Michael J. Morgan for The Space Between Our Ears: How the Brain Represents Visual Space (2001), before the prize (for science writing) was discontinued.
From 2009 to 2012 it was called the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. In 2013 there was no award however there were changes to the prize including an increase in prize money from £25,000 to £30,000. The timetable of key dates is longlist in February, shortlist in March and winner in May.
In 2019, the prize announced that it had "decided to take a pause and reflect".

## Winners and shortlisted nominees

| Year | Winner | Work | Shortlisted nominees |
| 2019 | Will Eaves | Murmur | Thomas Page McBee, Amateur: A true story about what makes a manSandeep Jauhar, Heart: A HistoryArnold Thomas Fanning, Mind on Fire: A memoir of madness and recoveryOttessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and RelaxationSarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner: One woman’s extraordinary life in death, decay and disaster |
| 2018 | Mark O'Connell | To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death | Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Stay With Me: A NovelLindsey Fitzharris, The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian MedicineKathryn Mannix, With the End in Mind: Dying, Death, and Wisdom in an Age of DenialSigrid Rausing, Mayhem: A MemoirMeredith Wadman, The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease |
| 2017 | Maylis de Kerangal | Mend the Living (aka The Heart) | Ed Yong, I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of LifeSiddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate HistoryDavid France, How to Survive a Plague: The Inside Story of How Citizens and Science Tamed AIDSSarah Moss, The Tidal ZonePaul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air |
| 2016 | Suzanne O'Sullivan | It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness | Amy Liptrot, The OutrunSarah Moss, Signs for Lost ChildrenAlex Pheby, PlaythingsCathy Rentzenbrink, The Last Act of Love: The Story of My Brother and His SisterSteve Silberman, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity |
| 2015 | Marion Coutts | The Iceberg: A Memoir | Henry Marsh, Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain SurgerySarah Moss, Bodies of LightAlice Roberts, The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being: Evolution and the Making of UsScott Stossel, My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of MindMiriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows |
| 2014 | Andrew Solomon | Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity | Elizabeth Gilbert, The Signature of All ThingsEmily Mayhew, Wounded: From Battlefield to BlightyAdam Rutherford, Creation: The Origin of LifeOliver Sacks, HallucinationsSarah Wise, Inconvenient People |
| 2013 | No award | | |
| 2012 | Thomas Wright | Circulation: William Harvey, a Man in Motion | Mohammed Hanif, Our Lady of Alice BhattiPeter James, Perfect PeopleRose Tremain, Merivel: A Man of His TimeJohn M. Coates, The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: Risk-taking, Gut Feelings and the Biology of Boom and BustNick Coleman, The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss |
| 2011 | Alice LaPlante | Turn of Mind | Philip Roth, NemesisLouisa Young, My Dear I Wanted to Tell YouAnn Patchett, State of WonderSiddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of CancerSarah Manguso, The Two Kinds of Decay |
| 2010 | Rebecca Skloot | The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks | Gareth Williams, Angel of Death: The Story of SmallpoxEmma Henderson, Grace Williams Says it LoudJohn Nichol, Medic: Saving Lives – from Dunkirk to AfghanistanLionel Shriver, So Much for ThatTim Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing |
| 2009 | Andrea Gillies | Keeper: Living with Nancy – A Journey into Alzheimer's | Abraham Verghese, Cutting for StoneBrian Dillon, The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented LivesHavi Carel, Illness (Art of Living)Allegra Goodman, IntuitionJonny Steinberg, Sizwe's Test: A Young Man's Journey Through Africa's AIDS Epidemic, aka Three-Letter Plague |