A New World Literature Canon

Scholarly debate about world literature often relegates non-fiction as secondary to fiction. This article argues that non-fiction is as important as fiction, and uses the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award as a case study. Although the FT award focuses on business, it has a wider cultural impact influencing academia, global media, and literature. After seventeen years, the award’s consistent quality of longlisted books has created a canon that has genuine literary value. My analysis of the award demonstrates that the finalists and winners have been concentrated in terms of author’s country of work, author’s profession, and primary subject. This concentration can be partly explained by the dominance of the US in the publishing of business books as well as by the mechanics of the award’s selection process. The FT award also prompts a discussion about the merits of a literary award that embraces both fiction and non-fiction.