This year’s inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction marks a significant milestone. As readers, we often find ourselves wandering through the shelves, grappling with narratives penned by male authors dominating the genre. But let’s pause and consider: where are the female voices in this landscape? There is a pernicious, misogynist rhetoric that women only read frivolous, lighter books – and honestly? We are over it.
Forget what you know about non-fiction – it’s getting a serious upgrade. Non-fiction written by women has always been on the margins, their presence historically underrepresented and woefully underpaid (echoing the broader gender disparities seen in literature and beyond). But the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is here to illuminate the narratives and insights of female non-fiction writers. At last.
This first-of-its-kind shortlist unveils a tapestry of stories, each woven with the richness of female experience, intellect, and perspective. This is an important step in overcoming the systemic hurdles faced by women in the literary world, from the persisting gender pay gap to the lack of recognition and press time given.
The long list was a brilliant curation of this genre, with the sixteen titles exploring evolution, economics, history, race, tech, and culture through a female lens. Don’t miss out on the remaining ten long-listed books, though – each of them would have deserved a shortlisted spot.
Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist Titles:
- The Britannias by Alice Albinia, £17.01
- Vulture Capitalism by Grace Blakeley, £14.84
- Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon, £19.72
- Intervals by Marianne Brooker, £19.24
- Shadows at Noon by Joya Chatterji, £22.60
- Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, £15.18
- Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder, £9.47
- Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood by Lucy Jones,
- The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie, £17.95
- Young Queens by Leah Redmond Chang, £11.17
The judges have somehow narrowed it down to a final six, which we have reviewed for you below. The winner is being announced on 13 June, so there’s plenty of time to dive into these and choose which one you think deserves the top spot.
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