Joanna Kusiak won the fourth Nine Dots Prize with her entry to the question: ‘Why has the rule of law become so fragile?’ Here are three extracts from her 3,000 word entry: I In the morning of the day Gabor Steingart, one of Germany’s top economics journalists, interviews me for his news podcast, I am […]
The Nine Dots Prize has now revealed the question it will pose as part of a global problem-solving competition, offering US$100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press for the winning response. The question for the 2023/2024 cycle is: ‘Why has the rule of law become so fragile?’ First launched in 2016 and now […]
As we prepare to launch our fourth cycle, the Nine Dots Prize welcomes four new members to its Board. Together this group of internationally recognised and distinguished academics, authors, journalists and thinkers will help select our next winner. Joining the group are: Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University, Professor J. Jarpa Dawuni; President […]
Soro Soke: The Young Disruptors of an African Megacity, developed from Trish Lorenz’ 2021/2022 winning entry, is published by Cambridge University Press on 26th May. Designer Lauren Downing describes the process behind the cover for the book, its inspiration and some of the factors the team considered along the way. What was the inspiration behind […]
Did you always want to be a journalist? I always loved writing, even as a child. When I was 10 years old, I wrote a small book called ‘On the lives of chickens’ because I was slightly obsessed with our new chickens. I grew up in Australia but went travelling after university and worked all […]
We are pleased to share two extracts from Trish Lorenz’s 2021/2022 Nine Dots Prize-winning entry. Over the coming year, Trish will develop her essay response into a full-length book to be published by Cambridge University Press in May 2022. The book will be published in a variety of formats, including open access, meaning it will […]
Berlin-based journalist Trish Lorenz has been announced as the winner of the 2021/2022 Nine Dots Prize, receiving US$100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press for her ‘compelling and well-evidenced’ response to the question ‘What does it mean to be young in an ageing world?’ The Nine Dots Prize is a prize for a […]
We recognise that for many people considering entering the Nine Dots Prize it will be the first time they have ever thought about writing a book proposal. So here are some helpful tips from Chris Harrison, Publishing Director at Cambridge University Press: Focus on your big idea The judges for the prize do not […]
The Nine Dots Prize welcomes responses that draw on a range of perspectives and disciplines. Steven Connor, Nine Dots Prize Board member and Director of the Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), talks about the benefits of taking an interdisciplinary approach to tackling the big issues of our times. Since […]
Jane Tinkler (Nine Dots Prize) Welcome to this podcast – the next in our series that we hope will support and inspire anyone who’s getting ready to enter the Nine Dots Prize – or who just wants to think about how to make their writing more effective. I’m Jane Tinkler, Senior Manager for the […]
Jane Tinkler (Nine Dots Prize) Hello, and welcome to this podcast for anyone considering applying for the Nine Dots Prize. I’m Jane Tinkler, Senior Manager for the Prize, and we’re looking for entries that will really stand out and engage readers. So, we’ve asked three successful writers to share some of their ideas, experience and […]
A key measure of sophistication in a field is one’s ability to make fine distinctions in qualitative properties important to that field. For example, we know a Sommelier is good if she can make a distinction between, say, the taste profiles of a 1985 versus 1986 Bordeaux – two very good years but each with […]
Jane Tinkler (Nine Dots Prize) Hello, and welcome to this podcast for anyone considering applying for the Nine Dots Prize, or interested in writing non-fiction more generally. I’m Jane Tinkler, Senior Manager for the Nine Dots Prize, and this year we’re looking for entries that will really stand out. One of the challenges is to […]
Jane Tinkler (Nine Dots Prize) Hello, and welcome to this podcast for anyone considering applying for the Nine Dots Prize. I’m Jane Tinkler, Senior Manager for the Nine Dots Prize. We’re keen to encourage entries from as wide a range of people as possible. In this episode we’ll be looking at why hearing from a […]
It is a great honour to be the chair of the Nine Dots Prize Board. The Nine Dots Prize is quite different from any other prize I know. It is not just for an achievement, it’s a prize that changes the way things happen. When we set a provocative and important question, hundreds of people […]
The Nine Dots Prize has today (Friday 2nd October) revealed the question it will pose as part of a global problem-solving competition, offering US$100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press for the winning response. The question for the 2021/2022 cycle is ‘What does it mean to be young in an ageing world?’ Launched […]
Annie Zaidi’s Bread, Cement, Cactus: A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation is now available to read for free on the Cambridge University Press website. Bread, Cement, Cactus is based on Zaidi’s winning entry to the Nine Dots Prize 2019/2020, which challenged people to respond to the question ‘Is there still no place like home?’ Combining […]
Entries were judged anonymously by leading international thinkers including Anne Applebaum, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, Ira Katznelson and David Runciman 40-year-old Annie Zaidi, a freelance writer whose work includes reportage, essays, short stories, poetry and plays, has been announced as the winner of the US$100,000 Nine Dots Prize 2019/2020. Now in its second cycle, the Prize – […]
Annie Zaidi won the Nine Dots Prize 2019/2020 with her entry ‘Bread, Cement, Cactus’. Here is an extract from Zaidi’s 3,000-word response to the question ‘Is there still no place like home?’: In Muhammadabad, a mofussil village struggling to morph into a town, we trace fourteen generations. The uncle who told me this is now […]
Our inaugural winner James Williams has had his Nine Dots Prize-winning book, Stand Out of Our Light, selected as this year’s Princeton University Pre-read. Every year Princeton’s President Christopher L. Eisgruber selects a Pre-read to introduce first-year students to the intellectual life of the University by offering opportunities to discuss a book that other members […]
The Nine Dots Prize has created a series of podcasts giving tips and advice to those thinking of submitting an answer to our question, ‘Is there still no place like home?’ Our second podcast looks at the importance of diversity and why the Nine Dots Prize wants to encourage answers from a broad range of […]
The Nine Dots Prize has created a podcast to help those who are considering applying for the Prize, giving tips, advice and insight into what the Board is looking for in a winning entry. The first podcast is about writing non-fiction in a creative and engaging way. One of the challenges of the prize is […]
The Nine Dots Prize has today (Friday 5th October) announced that it is offering US$100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press to whoever can best answer the question ‘Is there still no place like home?’ This marks the launch of the second cycle of the Nine Dots Prize, which is designed to promote […]
“a landmark book” – the Observer Clickbait. Fake news. Notifications. Auto-playing videos. In the ‘Information Age,’ our world often seems like an endless avalanche of distractions. However, far from being mere minor annoyances, these ‘distractions’ are in fact symptoms of a deep, dark problem that lurks at the heart of modern media: our digital […]
35-year-old James Williams, a doctoral candidate researching design ethics at Oxford University, has been announced today (Tuesday 30th May 2017) as the inaugural winner of the US$100,000 Nine Dots Prize. Up against competition from over 700 other entrants from around the world, Williams’ 3,000-word answer to the set question ‘Are digital technologies making politics impossible?’ […]
James Williams won the inaugural Nine Dots Prize with his entry Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Persuasion in the Attention Economy. Here are some sample extracts from his 3,000-word response to the question Are digital technologies making politics impossible? Extract 1: Digital technologies privilege our impulses over our intentions. They are increasingly […]
Submissions for the inaugural Nine Dots Prize have closed, with over 700 entries received before the deadline of midnight GMT on 31st January 2017. Answers to the Prize question – Are digital technologies making politics impossible? – have come from all four corners of the globe and from an array of professions including academics, journalists, […]
Last week, Nine Dots Prize Board member Professor David Runciman appeared on Canada’s national public radio broadcaster, CBC Radio, to talk about the inaugural Nine Dots Prize question. Professor Runciman spoke to Nora Young, presenter of CBC’s Spark, a programme that explores how technology, innovation and design affects our lives. When asked why the Board […]
Politics at the moment is as noisy as it’s ever been in my lifetime. That is why we at the Nine Dots prize are offering $100,000 for the best answer to the question: are digital technologies making politics impossible? The aim of the prize is to cut through the noise of social and political commentary […]
To mark the launch of the Nine Dots Prize, we organised a Rodin-inspired photo shoot – using the iconic image of The Thinker to communicate our aim of encouraging innovative thinking to address problems facing the modern world. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video showing how it was done…
A new prize launched today (Friday 21 October 2016) is offering US$100,000 and a book deal with Cambridge University Press to whoever can best answer the question ‘Are digital technologies making politics impossible?’ The Nine Dots Prize is designed to promote and encourage innovative thinking to address problems facing the modern world. Its name references […]
