News

25 May 2021

Press Release

The Moore Prize 2021

The Christopher G. Moore Foundation is pleased to announce their fifth annual literary prize honouring books that feature human rights themes. The Prize has been established to provide funds to authors who, through their work, contribute to the understanding and universality of human rights. This unique initiative will be awarded annually, as chosen by a panel of judges whose own work focuses on human rights.

The 2021 Moore Prize will recognise books first published between July 1st 2020 and June 30th 2021. This is an international prize and open to authors worldwide. Entry is free and works may be submitted directly by the author(s) or through a publisher. The Prize is open to any non-fiction work, published in English, which promotes the values of human rights. The winner of the prize will receive £1,000.

Submissions must be received by June 30th 2021 to be eligible. To submit a book, please visit www.cgmoorefoundation.org/prize. Full details of the long list, short list and award winners will be published on the Foundation website.

The 2021 jury is comprised of Adrienne Loftus Parkins, Debbie Stothard and Minh Bui Jones.

The 2020 Moore Prize was awarded to Raja Shehadeh for Going Home. For a full list of previous winners and shortlisted titles please visit the Foundation website.


Contacts: For all media inquiries please contact Foundation director Daniel Vaver at dv@cgmoorefoundation.org


For more information on the Prize and the Foundation, please visit cgmoorefoundation.org

Notes to Editors:

  • The Christopher G. Moore Foundation and Moore Prize are named after Christopher G. Moore, the Canadian novelist and essayist. The Christopher G. Moore Foundation is a registered UK charity dedicated to supporting authors who promote human rights and monitor its infringements.

  • Adrienne Loftus Parkins is an international literary consultant. As founder and former director of the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature she focused on promoting contemporary pan-Asian writing and championing emerging Asian/British Asian writers throughout the UK. In her current roles as Literary Director/Advisor to Bangkok Edge, a co-founder of M Fest–Festival of Muslim Cultures & Ideas and as a member of the steering committee of the international DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, she has the opportunity promote literature as a tool of cultural understanding across many countries. Adrienne co-founded Anamika, a women’s educational group in India, headed the National Museums’ public lecture programme in Singapore and worked with the Pan Asian Women’s Association to promote Asian women writers. She has served on the steering committees of the British Council’s Korea and China Market Focus programmes and Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival. In 2019 Adrienne was a Moore Prize Judge. She will serve as Chief Judge for the Moore Prize 2021.

Debbie Stothard is an active promoter of human rights in Burma where she developed the first ongoing women-specific training program for Burma. In 1996, she founded the Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma). During her 32 year career, she has worked as a journalist, community education consultant, governmental advisor and trainer in Malaysia, Australia and Thailand. She has worked with UN and Asean institutions as well as several governments in Asia, North America and Europe. She was also invited by many prestigious universities and conferences around the world to speak on the Burmese situation. She became Deputy Secretary-General of the FIDH in November 2010. Between 2010 and 2013, she represented FIDH on missions or at conferences in Belgium, Brazil, Burma, France, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Peru, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, and the United States. She was elected secretary general of FIDH in May 2013.

Minh Bui Jones is the founder and editor of Mekong Review, a quarterly English-language magazine of arts, literature, culture, politics, the environment and society in Asia. Bui Jones is a Vietnamese-Australian journalist who has worked for SBS-TV, the Sydney Morning Herald and Asia Times Online. He was the founder of The Diplomat and American Review. With the founding of Mekong Review in 2015, he has established himself as one of Asia’s leading literary publishers.

  • Christopher G. Moore is a Canadian author whose writing is focused on Southeast Asia. Best known for his Calvino series of detective novels, he has also written several non-fiction works and edited anthologies of essays discussing human rights, freedom of speech and censorship.

  • The Foundation Trustees are Daniel Vaver and Christopher G. Moore.

  • The shortlist will be announced on December 10th 2021. The winner will be announced on January 11th 2022.