‘Fascinating selection of books’ shortlisted for Wingate Literary Prize

The 2026 Wingate Literary Prize longlist comprises five novels and seven nonfiction titles. Covering a broad spectrum of opinions, style and content, these books look at what it means to be Jewish in multiple ways.  

Chair of the judges Erica Wagner says: “We were delighted and surprised by this diverse and interesting list, which in both fiction and non-fiction showcases the purpose of the Wingate Prize. From politics to personal identity, from debut novelists to some of literature’s most recognised names, from the American Civil War to the beginnings of the sexual revolution, there is something for every kind of reader in this fascinating selection of books.”

The Wingate Literary Prize, established in 1977 by the late Harold Hyam Wingate, is worth £4,000. It is awarded annually to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to convey the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.

The 2026 longlist is:

The Einstein of Sex by Daniel Brook

Chopping Onions on my Heart by Samantha Ellis

Chutzpah! A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality and Daring to Stay by Yehudis Fletcher

City of Laughter by Temim Fruchter

Berlin Atomized by Julia Kornberg

Fear No Pharaoh by Richard Kreitner

Nothing Vast by Moshe Zvi Marvit

Ripeness by Sarah Moss

Letters by Oliver Sacks, edited by Kate Edgar

Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart

Family Romance by Jean Strouse

The Gates of Gaza by Amir Tibon

Xiaolu Guo, Kate Weinberg and Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet are also on the judging panel. The shortlist will be announced in mid December and the winner in early 2026, followed by an event at Jewish Book Week.

Xiaolu Guo’s novels include A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize), Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, and I Am China. Her memoir Once Upon A Time In The East won the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017 and was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her nonfiction Radical was published by Vintage 2023, followed by My Battle of Hastings. Her 2025 novel Call Me Ishmaelle is a retelling of Melville’s Moby Dick. Named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist in 2013, she also directed a dozen films, including How Is Your Fish Today, UFO In Her Eyes and She, A Chinese. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Erica Wagner’s latest book is Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort Of Love Story. She was the literary editor of The Times for 17 years and is a consulting editor on the comment pages of The Observer, contributing writer for the New Statesman, consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar and a host of the Chanel podcast, Les Rencontres. She is the author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge, winner of the Eccles Centre and Hay Festival Writer’s Award; her other books are Ariel’s Gift, Seizure, Gravity and she is the editor of First Light, a celebration of the work of Alan Garner. She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023 and in 2025 was awarded a Public Humanities Fellowship by the School of Advanced Study, University of London.

Kate Weinberg’s most recent novel There’s Nothing Wrong With Her was inspired by her battle with Long Covid during the pandemic. Her campaign to raise awareness around invisible illnesses included appearances on the BBC Today Programme, Sky News, Radio 2 and Times Radio. Her debut, The Truants, was published in 2020 and was a Book of the Year in The New York Times, The Observer, The Ipaper, The Irish Times and USA Today.  After working as an English teacher in Rome, Kate took an MA in Creative Writing at UEA before returning to London to become a fiction and non-fiction editor and Creative Writing teacher. As a freelance journalist she has written regularly for The Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Times, The Spectator, The Daily Mail and The Guardian. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

Adam Zagoria-Moffet is the rabbi of St Albans Masorti Synagogue (SAMS) and the Director of Strategy for Masorti Judaism in the UK. He was ordained from the Jewish Theological Seminary where he also received an MA in Jewish Thought. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, and has lived in Minnesota, New York, and Israel before moving to the UK. His interests are primarily in mysticism, ethics, and Sephardic Judaism and culture. He also runs Izzun Books, a small independent publisher of unusual Jewish titles. He lives in St Albans with his family.