The 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction Shortlist announced

The Women’s Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction has announced its shortlist for both categories in preparation for the winner being announced on 12 June. Six novels from the world of fiction and six nonfiction books published between April 1 2024 and March 31 2025 in English are in contention for the award of £30,000 and the prestigious title that comes with it. As for the twelve books on the shortlists, they explore a range of histories and themes that are important for promoting women’s voices in the world of literature. The Women’s Prize is a charity that celebrates women’s literature, distributes books to women in need, supports young writers, and promotes women’s writing to a prestigious category.

The Fiction Shortlist:

The prize, intending to empower and celebrate women’s writing, has hit backlash for including Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the longlist. Adichie has been accused of being transphobic after giving an interview in 2017 claiming trans women are not “real women”. The prize is about the work that is produced, but the involvement of Adichie and the backlash it caused primarily on bookish areas of social media has called into question frequent conversations about the role of authorship in literature. After the already controversial inclusion of Adichie in the longlist, the shortlist, not including her, was announced to include six authors that create strong female voices to champion a need for human connection and personal freedom. They celebrate an international spread of fiction from multiple generations that explore what it means to be a woman in different histories. This year’s shortlist consists of three fantastic debut novels and has been dominated by writers based in the United States.

Good Girl by Aria Aber (Germany/United States) – Aber’s debut novel is about a young Afghan girl trying to escape her history in the techno scene in 2000s Berlin.

All Fours by Miranda July (United States) – A 45-year-old woman leaves her life behind to start a new life in a motel and goes on a road trip of self-discovery.

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji (Iran/United States) – This is a multigenerational debut novel about five women from one once-prominent Iranian family as they live in America from the 1940s to the 2000s.

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (United States) – Strout, twice previously shortlisted for the Women’s Prize, brings her much-loved characters together in a new story set in her fictional village of Shirley Falls.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Israel/The Netherlands) – Van der Wouden’s debut novel set in The Netherlands after the Second World War, had already been shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year, and explores a queer love story and the consequences of history.

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (United Kingdom) – This debut novel follows Nadia as she gets a job with the UN helping ex-ISIS wives in this comedy about a serious subject.

The Nonfiction Shortlist:

The nonfiction prize is in its second year, when last year the prize was won for the first time by Naomi Klein for her memoir and political analysis Doppelganger. This year, six books, spreading their expertise and memory on topics that inspire hope and resistance, have made the shortlist.

A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry – A memoir about Cherry’s life in the spotlight as a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter.

The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke – Tells the inspiring story of a heart transplant that saves a young life.

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton – Dalton’s experience with how meeting and befriending a wild hare changed her life.

Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka by Clare Mulley – Mulley tells Zawacka’s story as a resistance fighter who was the only female emissary to get from Warsaw to London.

What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean by Helen Scales – Scales, a critically acclaimed marine biologist, examines threats posed to the ocean.

Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang – This book follows four women in China through economic and social revolutions, by the journalist and MP, Yuang Yang.

2024-2025 has been the year for women in other prizes, with Samantha Harvey’s Orbital winning the Booker Prize and Han Kang being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. These shortlists, then, contain some amazing literature from women that deserves to be celebrated, but who will take home the winning prize? Like with my previous attempts with the Booker Prize, I will be attempting to read the Shortlist for Fiction to offer my input when the winner is announced. I have already read The Safekeep and adored it, much more than the Booker winner, but I will not pass judgment until I have read the entire shortlist.