THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2027

RULES AND PROCEDURE

1. The Anglo-Hellenic League is delighted to offer the 2027 Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award, a prize in memory of historian and philhellene Sir Steven Runciman (1903-2000), for an original work, wholly or mainly about some aspect of Greece or the world of Hellenism, published in English in any country of the world in its first edition during 2026.

2. The aim of the award is to stimulate interest in Greek history, literature, language and culture from earliest times to the present; to promote wider knowledge and understanding of Greece (ancient, medieval and contemporary), and of Greece’s values and contribution to civilization; and to encourage good and accessible writing, of which Sir Steven’s works are an outstanding example. Books submitted must fall within this framework of subject matter.

The award may be made for a work in the fields of:

• history

• literary studies

• cultural studies

• biography

• travel and topography

• the arts

• architecture

• archaeology

• the environment

• social and political sciences

• current affairs

• religious studies

or for a work of:

• fiction

• poetry

• drama

provided that it falls within scope of the aim set out above. Works in translation (e.g. poetry, fiction, drama etc.) from any period of literature in Greek are also eligible; non-literary translated works will not be considered.

3. The winning book will demonstrate two key criteria:

• outstanding quality of research, scholarship, and/or creativity, skill and innovation; and

• outstanding accessibility, quality of writing and appeal to interested non-specialist readers.

4. The winning book is expected to command public attention and to stimulate a wide readership. We welcome books representative of all periods of Greek history and culture from antiquity through to our own time. We strongly encourage publishers to submit for the judges’ consideration not only outstanding academic writing for specialists, but also works of drama, fiction, and poetry, and books in any of the areas listed in paragraph 2 intended for broader audiences.

5. Because of our mission to reward books that appeal to interested general readers, the League encourages publishers to nominate books that can be afforded by such readers, i.e. not books that are likely to be acquired mostly by libraries. Although they retain discretion to do otherwise, the judges have indicated that they are unlikely to place on their short list books costing more than £90 (unless a cheaper paperback version is available or in the offing), however great their merit.

6. Nominations of books must be made on the attached entry form and sent by e-mail by close of business on Monday 14 December 2026 to the Runciman Award administrator, Dr Jonathan Williams, at runciman@anglohellenicleague.org.

7. We request that, at nomination stage, publishers submit to us names and details of nominated books only. In early January 2027, the judging panel will decide on a long list of books. The administrator will then formally request that publishers submit copies of those books to the panel members as quickly as possible. It is a condition of nominating books in the first round that the publisher of a longlisted book (or books) will submit, in January 2027, six printed copies of each longlisted book, one to each of the five judges and the administrator.

8. Please note that one of our judges lives in Greece and another in Sweden, and a condition of nominating a book is that the publisher will meet (either upfront or by reimbursement after the event) any customs and clearance charges levied at international borders, whether by the publisher’s courier company or by the recipient state or both. Our judges will not accept e-books or books in the form of PDF files (or similar).

9. In selecting books for nomination publishers should note:

• no more than seven books may be nominated by any one publisher;

• complex publishing houses, with many departments, are encouraged to co-ordinate their nominations internally and to submit a single nominating form (with no more than seven books in total);

• the following types of book are not eligible:

(i) books of multiple authorship (i.e. three or more authors or contributors, e.g. conference proceedings; but a curated anthology of Greek short stories or poems would be eligible in the name of the editor).

(ii) books translated by multiple hands (i.e. three or more translators);

(iii) books primarily authored by someone other than the editor or editors in respect of whom the nomination would be made (e.g. a new edition of a classical or Byzantine or modern text; an edition of an author’s correspondence or essays, if by an editor other than the author)

(iv) books in which any of the award’s current judges or the award’s administrator have played a substantial role (e.g. as translator, co-translator, author or co-author or by contributing a preface, introduction or afterword);

• the inside of the book must have 2026 stated as the copyright year of its first edition;

• books to be published in 2026 after nominations close on Monday 14 December (i.e. between 15 and 31 December 2026) are eligible for the award in 2027 provided they are copyright-dated 2026. Such books will not be eligible for the award in 2028;

• the UK Recommended Retail Price (where applicable) of each nominated book must be indicated on the entry form;

• information about the currently available format of the published book and about the publisher’s intention (if known) to produce a paperback edition is requested;

• (optional) information about any known authoritative reviews of the nominated book(s) is sought (please do not reproduce publishers’ blurbs unless these are references to authoritative reviews).

10. The chair of judges in 2027 is Sofka Zinovieff. The other judges are Prof. Esther Eidinow, Prof. Vassiliki Kolocotroni, Prof. Ingela Nilsson and Dr Oliver Thomas.

11. The prize is £10,000. How the prize is awarded, whether to one work or more than one, is the responsibility of the judges alone. Their decision is final. Feedback is not given at any stage.

12. It is a condition of the award that longlisted and shortlisted books must be readily available for purchase to readers in the UK by the time that the longlist is drawn up (i.e. no later than 2 January 2027). Publishers of longlisted and shortlisted books will be notified at the appropriate point in the competition. The League will advertise longlisted and shortlisted books on its website and on a range of social media channels, using images of the books and drawing on publishers’ existing publicity material for them.

13. After the judges have decided on their shortlist, the administrator will ask publishers for photographs of the shortlisted authors to use in publicity material, and will seek contact details for direct communications with the shortlisted authors at that stage.

14. Publishers will at this stage send a copy of the shortlisted books to the Administrator.

15. When the judges have decided on the winning book, its author or translator will be notified personally by the administrator. The other shortlisted authors will also be personally informed about the final result. The winner must make best efforts to attend the award ceremony at King’s College London on the evening of Monday 7 June 2027 to receive the award.

Queries should be addressed to the administrator by e-mail as above.

For the Council of the League

6 October 2026

Sponsors of the Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award are The Athanasios C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation & The A. G. Leventis Foundation