Richard Flanagan has become the first writer to win both the prestigious Booker Prize and Baillie Gifford Prize – only to decline the latter’s £50,000 prize money over fossil fuel concerns, per theguardian.com. Flanagan’s latest work **Question 7,** a genre-defying exploration of family, memory and Tasmanian history, was unanimously selected by the judges as this year’s winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for nonfiction. The author’s stance adds to growing pressure on Baillie Gifford, which has faced criticism over its investment portfolio. Despite declining the prize money, Flanagan expressed a willingness to engage with Baillie Gifford’s board, offering to share firsthand accounts of how fossil fuels are impacting his native Australia. At the ceremony, Baillie Gifford partner Peter Singlehurst expressed the firm’s desire to continue sponsoring the prize, while the prize organisers revealed that two authors had withdrawn their books from consideration this year, with one explicitly citing concerns over the sponsorship.
