Chaired by Simon Goldhill (Kings College, University of Cambridge / Chair of the Nine Dots Prize Board)

Speakers
Joanna Kusiak (Nine Dots prize winner 2023)
Trish Lorenz (Nine Dots prize winner 2021)
James Williams (Nine Dots prize winner 2017)
Annie Zaidi (Nine Dots prize winner 2019)

Respondent
David Runciman (University of Cambridge)

Summary
The market for non-fiction books is growing, with its worth estimated to be $15 billion in 2024. Areas of significant growth have been in narrative non-fiction, an increased focus on social and political commentary, and works that explore local or niche topics. But as a genre, it is often defined in relation to what it is not – fiction. Or as an umbrella term – in German Sachbücher is used, ‘books about things’ – that does not distinguish the different types of non-fiction writing or how creative and literary techniques can be used to tell a more engaging story.

This event will seek to look in more depth at the different ways of writing creative non-fiction, and the important role that non-fiction writing plays in talking about societal questions and problems. We will hear from all four winners of the Nine Dots Prize, a prize that rewards innovative thinking on social questions; James Williams, Annie Zaidi, Trish Lorenz and Joanna Kusiak. They will talk about how they seek to draw readers into works of non-fiction and to connect research and evidence to a compelling and engaging story. They will also look at how changes in the way that people read may affect how we write non-fiction. Responding to their ideas will be David Runciman, presenter of the Past Present Future podcast and former member of the Nine Dots Prize Board. Simon Goldhill, Chair of the Nine Dots Prize Board, will chair the event.

To celebrate the launch of Joanna Kusiak’s Nine Dots Prize-winning book, Radically Legal: Berlin Constitutes the Future, we invite you to an online conversation between Dr Kusiak and Professor Pistor. Both examine how law, politics and democracy come up against corporate finance and property rights in relation to housing.

In her work of creative non-fiction, scholar-activist and Nine Dots Prize winner Joanna Kusiak tells the story of a grassroots movement that convinced a million Berliners to pop the speculative housing bubble. She offers a vision of urban housing as democratically held commons, legally managed by a radically new institutional model that works through democratic conflicts. Moving between interdisciplinary analysis and her own personal story, Kusiak connects the dots between the past and the present, the local and the global, and shows the potential of radically legal politics as a means of strengthening our democracies and reviving the rule of law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

A conversation with Senior Prize Manager, Jane Tinkler, and CRASSH Director, Professor Joanna Page.

With three full cycles now completed, and three winners’ booked published, this online event gives those thinking of applying to the Nine Dots Prize some practical guidance. We talk about: Top five tips to keep in mind when writing your response and book outline; Details of how to submit and what will ensure your application is eligible; The support that CRASSH, Cambridge University Press and the Nine Dots team will provide to the winner.

We also answer as many of your submitted questions as we can in the time.

What support is available to the winner of the Nine Dots Prize? Hear from the Nine Dots team along with Cambridge University Press, CRASSH at the University of Cambridge and Riot Communications about working with us if you are our next worthy winner.

Annie Zaidi's Prize winning book is called Bread Cement Cactus: A memoir of belonging and dislocation. She looks at the idea of home in different ways

Annie Zaidi, the Nine Dots Prize 2019/20 winner, talks about why the Prize's question 'Is there still no place like home?' inspired her to enter

Hear from the first two Nine Dots Prize winners, James Williams and Annie Zaidi. We asked them what it feels like to win the Prize, and to know they then had to write a book in such a short time. They also discuss where they found their inspiration for their responses to the Prize and how they researched their ideas. This event will be relevant for all those thinking of entering the Nine Dots Prize, but also those who are interested in creative thinking and writing about issues facing modern societies.