RSL Ondaatje Prize — Complete Winners List

21 years of winners · Royal Society of Literature · Since 2004 · ← Back to award page

Year	Title	Author	Publisher
2025	Clear	Carys Davies	Granta
2024	Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors	Ian Penman	Fitzcarraldo Editions
2023	Heritage Aesthetics	Anthony Anaxagorou	Granta
2022	Free: Coming of Age at the End of History	Lea Ypi	Allen Lane
2021	The Butchers	Ruth Gilligan	Atlantic Books
2020	A Portable Paradise	Roger Robinson	Peepal Tree Press
2018	Mama Amazonica	Pascale Petit	Bloodaxe Books
2017	Golden Hill	Francis Spufford	Faber & Faber
2016	Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible	Peter Pomerantsev	—
2015	Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood	Justin Marozzi	—
2014	This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood	Alan Johnson	—
2013	Scenes from Early Life	Philip Hensher	—
2012	The Sly Company of People Who Care	Rahul Bhattacharya	—
2011	The Hare with Amber Eyes	Edmund de Waal	Chatto & Windus
2010	The Dead Yard: Tales of Modern Jamaica	Ian Thomson	—
2009	Sissinghurst: an Unfinished History	Adam Nicolson	—
2008	The Discovery of France	Graham Robb	—
2007	In the Country of Men	Hisham Matar	—
2006	The People's Act of Love	James Meek	—
2005	The Places in Between	Rory Stewart	—
2004	Hearing Birds Fly	Louisa Waugh	—