Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards

The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards celebrate the best travel writing and travel writers in the world. The awards include the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.

The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year was previously called Dolman Best Travel Book Award (2006-2014). The award is named after Edward Stanford and is sponsored by Stanfords, a travel books and map store established in London in 1853. The Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year is one of the two principal annual travel book awards in Britain, and the only one that is open to all writers.[1] The other award is that made each year by the British Guild of Travel Writers, but that is limited to authors who are members of the Guild.

The first Dolman award was given in 2006, just two years after the only other travel book award - the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award which ran for 25 years - was abandoned by its sponsor.[1] From its founding through 2014, the £1,000 to £2,500 prize was organized by the Authors' Club and was sponsored by and named after club member William Dolman.[1][2] Beginning in 2015, a new sponsor Stanfords, a travel book store, was established along with an increase to £5,000 for the winner.

List of awards edit

The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards consist of the following:

  • Stanford Travel Book of the Year
  • Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing
  • Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year
  • Children's Travel Book of the Year
  • Fiction with a Sense of Place
  • Adventure Travel Book of the Year
  • Travel Memoir of the Year
  • Travel Blog of the Year
  • Photography and Illustrated Travel Book of The Year
  • Food & Travel Book of the Year
  • Innovation in Travel Publishing
  • New Travel Writer of the Year

Stanford Travel Book of the Year edit

  = winner


Stanford Travel Book of the Year


2023[3][4]

  •   Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, In The Shadow of the Mountain
  • Alex Bescoby, The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey of the Iconic Land Rover Expedition
  • Erika Fatland, High: A Journey Across the Himalayas Through Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal and China
  • Tobias Jones, The Po: An Elegy for Italy’s Longest River
  • Rebecca Lowe, The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East
  • Shafik Meghji, Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia
  • Alice Morrison, Walking with Nomads
  • Mary Novakovich, My Family and Other Enemies: Life and Travels in Croatia’s Hinterland

Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year


2022[5]

2021[6][7]

  • Paolo Cognetti, Without Ever Reaching the Summit: A Himalayan Journey
  • Erika Fatland, The Border: A Journey Around Russia Through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and the Northeast Passage
  •  Taran Khan, Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul
  • Nanjala Nyabola, Traveling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move
  • Jini Reddy, Wanderland: A Search for Magic in the Landscape
  • Sophy Roberts, The Lost Pianos of Siberia
  • C J Schuler, Along the Amber Route: St Petersburg to Venice
  • Jonathan C Slaght, Owls of the Eastern Ice: The Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl

2020[8]

2019[9][10]

  •   William Atkins, The Immeasurable World: Journeys in Desert Places
  • Ben Coates, The Rhine: Following Europe's Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps
  • Damian Le Bas, The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain
  • Alev Scott, Map and Illustration by Jamie Whyte, Ottoman Odyssey: Travels Through a Lost Empire
  • Witold Szablowski, Dancing Bears: True Stories about Longing for the Old Days (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd Jones)
  • Daniel Trilling, Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe

2018 [11][12]

2017 no award[13]

2016[14][15]

2015[16][17]

  • Philip Marsden, Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place
  • Helena Attlee, The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and Its Citrus Fruit
  •   Horatio Clare, Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men
  • Nick Hunt, Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor's footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn
  • Jens Mühling, A Journey into Russia
  • Elizabeth Pisani, Indonesia Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation

Dolman Best Travel Book Award


2014[18]

2013[19]

2012[citation needed]

2011[citation needed]

2010[21]

2009[22]

2008[citation needed]

2007[citation needed]

2006[citation needed]

Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing award edit

A lifetime achievement award for travel writing.

Fiction with a Sense of Place edit

Adventure Travel Book of the Year edit

Travel Memoir of the Year edit

Children's Travel Book of the Year edit

Photography & Illustrated Travel Book of the Year edit

  • 2022 Stuart Dunn, Only Us (Photography Travel book of the Year)
  • 2022 Matt Brown, Rhys B. Davies, illustrated by Mike Hall, Atlas of Imagined Places: From Lilliput to Gotham City’ (Illustrated Travel book of the Year)
  • 2019 Huw Lewis-Jones, The Writer's Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands[9][10]
  • 2018 Londonist Mapped by AA Publishing[11][12]
  • 2017 no award [13]
  • 2016 Malachy Tallack & Katie Scott, The Un-Discovered Islands[15]

Food & Travel Book of the Year edit

Innovation in Travel Publishing edit

  • 2017-2019 no award
  • 2016 James Cheshire & Oliver Uberti, Where the Animals Go[15]

New Travel Writer of the Year edit

Travel Blog of the Year edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c Michael Kerr (7 July 2008). "Dolman Best Travel Book Award 2008". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 July 2008.
  2. ^ ""Suicide by cop" coroner retires". haringey.gov.uk. 13 December 2007. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009.
  3. ^ @NatGeoUK (2023-03-02). "What to read: the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2023 winner and shortlist". National Geographic. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  4. ^ World, Travel Writing (2022-12-09). "Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2023". Travel Writing World. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  5. ^ World, Travel Writing (2022-02-01). "Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2022". Travel Writing World. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  6. ^ "Shortlist revealed for Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  7. ^ "Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year in Association with the Authors' Club". edwardstanfordawards. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  8. ^ a b "Stanford Dolman Travel Book o..." edwardstanfordawards. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2018 winners". Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. February 28, 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h "World-Class Shortlist Announced for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2019". Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. January 10, 2019. Archived from the original on June 17, 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2018 winners". Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. February 1, 2018. Archived from the original on August 12, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h "The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards Announces 2018 Shortlist". Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. January 10, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Award year shifted from being the year the books were published to the year the award was presented.
  14. ^ Katherine Cowdrey (3 February 2017). "Julian Sayarer's Interstate named Travel Book of the Year". The Bookseller. Retrieved April 6, 2017.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2016". Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards. 2017. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  16. ^ Michael Kerr (2 July 2015). "Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award: shortlist announced". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  17. ^ a b Michael Kerr (28 September 2015). "Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year award 2015 winner announced". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  18. ^ "2014 winner". authorsclub.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  19. ^ "2013 winner". authorsclub.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
  20. ^ "Telegraph Travel writer wins Dolman award". The Daily Telegraph. 6 Sep 2012. Archived from the original on 9 September 2014.
  21. ^ "Ian Thomson wins 2010 Dolman Travel Book of the Year". dolmanprize.wordpress.com. 7 July 2010. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012.
  22. ^ Blake Friedmann. "STREET WITHOUT A NAME shortlisted for Authors' Club Dolman Best Travel Book Award 2009". blakefriedmann.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012.
  23. ^ "Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020". Travel Writing World. 26 February 2020.

External links edit