Patrick Radden Keefe Shortlisted for Baillie Gifford Prize with London Falling

Patrick Radden Keefe, who won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction in 2021, is shortlisted again in 2026 — this time for London Falling, his book on London's criminal underbelly.

The American journalist joins Andrea Wulf and Matthew Sweet on a six-strong shortlist that spans literary biography, ancient history, true crime and international reportage. James Baldwin, Barbara Cartland and Alexander the Great number among its subjects.

Keefe's return to the shortlist gives the 2026 lineup its most decorated name. His previous win, in 2021, established him as one of the leading practitioners of narrative nonfiction writing in English, and London Falling extends his reputation for true-crime reportage into the British capital.

The shortlist's range is notable. A single prize will judge books on a twentieth-century American novelist, a twentieth-century British romance novelist, and a conqueror of the ancient world — three figures separated by era, continent and literary reputation, now placed on the same list by the prize's judges.

Andrea Wulf, shortlisted alongside Keefe, is a historian of science whose appearance on the list reinforces the prize's commitment to serious nonfiction across disciplines. Matthew Sweet, the writer and broadcaster, is the third named author on the shortlist.

The Baillie Gifford Prize, awarded annually for nonfiction writing, has built its reputation on shortlists of exactly this kind: books that cross genre boundaries, from biography to reportage to popular history. The 2026 edition follows that pattern.

For Keefe, the shortlisting raises a concrete possibility: a second win, five years after his first. Should London Falling take the prize, he would join the small group of authors who have won the Baillie Gifford more than once.

The remaining three titles on the six-book shortlist, whose authors the announcement did not name alongside Keefe, Wulf and Sweet, cover the fields the organizers identify: literary biography, ancient history and international reportage.

The winner will be decided later in the prize's cycle, and the result will determine whether Keefe's account of London's criminal underworld becomes his second Baillie Gifford-winning book.