Wellcome short list is dominated by women and new writers

The Wellcome Collection in central London is a place “for the incurably curious”. It is a museum and library that focusses on science and medicine and every year they award an international literary prize worth £30,000. It is open to both fiction and non fiction as long as the book illuminates our encounters with health, medicine, and illness.

Five of this year’s six shortlisted authors are women. Four of the books are debuts.

Here’s the short list – the winner will be annouced on April 30.

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
(Nigeria) Published by Canongate Books
A novel dealing with the heartbreak of infertility

The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
(USA) Published by Penguin Press.
Non fiction about how Joseph Lister transformed medicine

With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix
(UK) Published by HarperCollins.
Non fiction about palliative care for the terminally ill

To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell
(Ireland) Published by Granta Books.
The sub title is Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death

Mayhem by Sigrid Rausing
(UK/Sweden) published by Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Books.
A memoir about the addiction of a brother and his wife

The Vaccine Race by Meredith Wadman
(USA/Canada) Published by Doubleday, Transworld.
The sub title is: How Scientists Used Human Cells to Combat Killer Viruses
The jury described it as brilliantly researched and unfolding like a thriller.