Orwell prize shortlist dominated by books on Middle East

Finalists for political writing award include books about Islamic militancy, the Egyptian revolution and the aftermath of the Iraq war

The shortlist for the 2016 Orwell prize for the best political writing, announced on Thursday evening, is dominated by the Middle East, from a guide to Islamic militancy to an exploration of the Egyptian revolution.

There are six books in the running for the £3,000 prize, which goes to the book that is judged to come closest to George Orwell’s ambition to “make political writing into an art”. Jason Burke (now the Guardian’s Africa correspondent) was chosen for The New Threat from Islamic Militancy, Wendell Steavenson for Circling the Square, which traces the revolution in Egypt from Mubarak’s fall to Mohamed Morsi’s, and Emma Sky for The Unravelling.

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