Dan Werb

Jury Citation

“An eloquent storyteller with an international reach, an impeccable scientific communicator, and a lyrical celebrator of animals from bees to a giant Pacific octopus — Dan Werb has capitalized on his impressive skills to write Our Wild Familiars. The book is both a revelation and a challenge. The revelation is the fact that coyotes, raccoons, rats, and squirrels, to name only the most common North American residents, are thriving in urban life, getting smarter, bigger, and more at home sharing our space. The challenge is to create a world that offers stability and fulfilment for us all. Werb describes this balancing act with both realism and hope.”—2026 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction (Katherine Ashenburg, Debra Thompson, Joshua Whitehead)  

Jury Citation

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most disruptive event in world history since the Second World War. More than one million people have died, the global economy has been shaken, anti-science populist extremism has become a potent force, and other issues like climate change have been overshadowed by the debate over public health measures. Dan Werb tells us how we got here through an authoritative, scientific explanation of coronaviruses. The Invisible Siege is a scientific detective story that leaves the reader frightened that the villain is still on the loose, and maybe in the house.”