Yesterday the University of Warwick announced the six finalists for the Warwick Prize for Writing, a £50,000 award for one writer. The annual prize features a different theme every year, and the judges chose "complexity" for 2009.

The shortlist includes: Reinventing the Sacred by Stuart A. Kauffman, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein, The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross, Montano's Malady by Enrique Vila-Matas, Mad Bad and Sad by Lisa Appignanesi, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed Bishop Gerardi? by Francisco Goldman.

The director of the awards, Professor David Morley, explained the complexity theme: "If we accept that writing makes you think, and that the formation of knowledge depends partly on the complex and often playful process of writing, then what role does the process of writing play on that very edge of 'not knowing' and knowing: a place of creativity, energy and adventure."