Find out who's on the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist
The Women's Prize for Fiction is a hugely well-regarded prize, known for promoting and celebrating the very best of women's writing. Launched in 1996, it's sole focus for the last 25 years has been fiction but following some research which showed a clear inequality between the treatment of men and women's non-fiction, the charity made the decision that a non-fiction prize was equally needed and in 2024 launched the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. The inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction in 2024 was won by Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein.
The 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist contains a real breadth of styles, including personal memoir, nature writing and innovative history books and come from a range of disciplines, from music to medicine and science to true crime.
That longlist was chosen by a panel of judges which included journalist, author and broadcaster Kavita Puri; writer and broadcaster Dr Leah Broad; novelist and critic Elizabeth Buchan; writer and environmental academic Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett; and author and writer of The Hyphen newsletter on Substack, Emma Gannon.
"My fellow judges and I are thrilled with the selection of sixteen books on this year’s longlist," says Kavita Puri, Chair of Judges, said. "What unites these diverse titles, that boast so many different disciplines and genres, is the accomplishment of the writing, the originality of the storytelling and the incisiveness of the research. Here are books that provoke debate and discussion, that offer insight into new experiences and perspectives, and that bring overlooked stories back to life and recognition. Amongst this stellar list, there are also reads that expertly steer us through the most pressing issues of our time, show the resilience of the human spirit, alongside others that elucidate the dangers of unchecked power, the consequence of oppression and the need for action and defiance."
The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025
*Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum
*Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough
*The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor
*A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry
*The Story of A Heart by Rachel Clarke
*Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
*Ootlin by Jenni Fagan
*Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
*Agent Zo: The Untold Stories of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka by Clare Mulley
*By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle
*Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux
*What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean by Helen Scales
*The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale
*Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men by Harriet Wistrich
*Tracker by Alexis Wright
*Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang
The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist will be named on 26 March 2025 and the winner on 12 June. The winner will receive a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition artwork known as the ‘Charlotte’, both gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.
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