Every year, the best fiction and nonfiction by women written in English and published in the UK are honored with the Women’s Prize. A panel of five women, all with some tie to the book profession, choose the winners in each respective category.
Today, April 24, 2024, the longlist of finalists for both the Women’s Prize in Fiction and the Women’s Prize in Nonfiction, each composed of 16 titles, have been narrowed down to a short list of six for each. Winners will be announced June 12.
Here are the six finalists for fiction:
Anne Enright for The Wren, The Wren (Irish) VV Ganeshananthan for Brotherless Night (American) Kate Grenville for Restless Dolly Maunder (Australian) Isabella Hammad for Enter Ghost (British) Claire Kilroy for Soldier Sailor (Irish) Aube Rey Lescure and River East, River West (American / French)Finalist Kate Grenville has won the prize previously in 2001 for her book The Idea of Perfection.
For the Women’s Prize in Nonfiction, the shortlist is as follows:
Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming (British) Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (Canadian) A Flat Place by Noreen Masud (British) All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles (American) Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia (British) How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (Jamaica)This year’s judges on the fiction panel include Indira Varma, Anna Whitehouse, Monica Ali, Ayobami Adebayo and Laura Dockrill. For nonfiction, the panel includes Suzannah Lipscomb, Venetia La Manna, Nicola Rollock, Anne Sebba, and Kamila Shamsie (the 2018 winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction).
For more information about the books or the Women’s Prize, head to the Prize’s website. If you’re interested, you can snag tickets for the live announcement of the winners at the in-person event.
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