Announcing the Bread & Roses Award Shortlist 2025!

From over 100 submissions and a longlist of 16, our judges are thrilled to present the shortlist of 8 books!

The books chosen this year cover a wide array of topics which are critical to the present political discussion in the UK. Among them are social inequality, police violence, digital innovation, health politics, marginalised histories of identity, and feminism for all.

Meera Ghanshamdas, Chair of Judges and co-director of Round Table Books, said:

“This is my second year working on the Bread and Roses award, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences that I have had while working in books. The titles chosen for this year by our tremendous panel of judges are at the forefront of radical political conversation within their field, approaching their subject matter with nuance and sensitivity.

I had a concern regarding this year's submissions: a noticeable reduction of books focusing on some of the most pressing current issues in the UK and around the world, or a shift towards academic writing on the major issues.

I hope this was due to publishing lead times and the need for rigour within the discussion around these topics, rather than bigger publishers becoming more risk-averse and the decline of output from smaller publishers due to a lack of funding.”

The winner, winning £500, will be announced in a virtual ceremony on 15th September 2025!