William Nelson, a professor in the history department at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, has been named recipient of the Notting Hill Editions Essay Prize, a biennial £20,000 U.K. prize for literary essays on any subject.

Nelson was selected from six finalists, who each received a £1,000 prize, at a ceremony in London on June 28. The author’s winning essay, “Five Ways of Being a Painting,” examines estrangement in art. It was published alongside the other shortlisted works in an anthology in June.