The short list has been announced for a new £10,000 award that will be a centrepiece of the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival, in Dorset, now in its fourth year. The Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing will go to a published British or European author “whose work encourages understanding between peoples and across societies, countering the division and isolation of the present day”.

The six books short-listed, chosen from more than 70 submitted, are: Russia Starts Here: Real Lives in the Ruins of Empire by Howard Amos (Bloomsbury Continuum); Anima: A Wild Pastoral by Kapka Kassabova (Jonathan Cape); Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (Hamish Hamilton); Greyhound by Joanna Pocock (Fitzcarraldo Editions); Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War by Jen Stout (Polygon); and Lone Wolf: Walking the Faultlines of Europe by Adam Weymouth (Hutchinson Heinemann).

The judges this year are the writers Colin Thubron and Sara Wheeler and the literary agent Emma Paterson. Thubron, the chair, said: “In its vigour and diversity alone, our short list is a striking tribute to the indispensable value of travel and the seriousness of its writing. Travel writing has never been richer or more versatile.”

The winner will be announced at a special event on the final morning of the festival, which runs from April 10 to 12 in the Powell Theatre, Sherborne. Speakers already booked included Sara Wheeler (talking about her new biography, Jan Morris: A Life), Adam Weymouth and Jen Stout.