Authors including Sharlene Teo (Ponti, Picador) Sayaka Murata (Convenience Store Woman, Granta) and Levison Wood (Arabia, Hodder) have been shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards (ESTWA), recognising the best travel writing in the world.

The diverse shortlist comprises a total of 42 books, divided into the awards categories: Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year; Fiction, with a Sense of Place; Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year; Ordnance Survey Children’s Travel Book of the Year; Photography and Illustrated Travel Book of the Year; Travel Cookery Book of the Year; Travel Memoir of the Year; and Bradt Travel Guides New Travel Writer of the Year.

Authors in the running range from award-winners to debuts while their titles span journeys across the globe, secrets of the lost Ottoman Empire, Persian kitchens and war zones.

Vivien Godfrey, chairman and chief executive of Stanfords, said this year’s shortlist represented “a formidable line up of incredibly talented writers across the full spectrum of the travel writing genre”.

Click here to view the entire shortlist.