The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 Longlist is here!
I've been following the Women's Prize for Fiction for several years now and I love that they've now launched a prize for non-fiction too. Women are still hugely underrepresented in non-fiction writing, so it's very much needed -not just for the winner but for the fantastic exposure it offers for the whole longlist and non-fiction written by women in general.
The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction is open to non-fiction written by women in English and published in the UK between 1st April of the year before the prize and 31st March of the year of the prize. So, this year's prize was available to books published between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025.
And here is the longlist!
Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum.
Published by Allen Lane on 23rd July 2024.
Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough.
Published by Profile Books on 19th September 2024.
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor.
Published by Allen Lane on 3rd October 2024.
A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry.
Published by Fern Press on 3rd October 2024.
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke.
Published by Abacus on 3rd September 2024.
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton.
Published by Canongate on 26th September 2024.
Ootlin by Jenni Fagan.
Published by Hutchinson Heinemann on 22nd August 2024.
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Love, Loss and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller.
Published by ONE on 10th October 2024.
Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter ElĹźbieta Zawacka by Clare Mulley.
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 16th May 2024.
By The Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight For Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle.
Published by William Collins on 12th September 2024.
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux.
Published by Faber & Faber on 12th September 2024.
What The Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean by Helen Scales.
Published by Grove Press on 6th June 2024.
The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale.
Published by Bloomsbury Circus on 3rd October 2024.
Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men by Harriet Wistrich.
Published by Torva on 2nd May 2024.
Tracker by Alexis Wright.
Published by And Other Stories on 7th January 2025.
Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang.
Published by Bloomsbury Circus on 9th May 2024.
It's an amazing mix of topics and I'm pretty confident that it's a longlist with something for everyone. Whether you're a history buff, a nature lover, a memoir reader or a true crime fanatic, there is at least one book here that probably sounds fantastic to you.
For me, Embers of the Hands, Raising Hare, The Peepshow and Private Revolutions are standouts in terms of what I think I'd love. I haven't read any of them and The Peepshow is the only one I own. I have requested the other three that I'm particularly interested in from the library but Raising Hare has 12 reservations on just three copies, so it's unlikely I'll get my hands on that any time soon!
As someone who isn't a huge non-fiction reader, I'm so grateful to the Women's Prize for encouraging me to read more of it through this prize. Last year, I loved Wifedom by Anna Funder and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have heard of it without the longlist, so I'm on the lookout for another hidden gem to find its way to me this year!
What do you think of the longlist? Have you read any of them? Do you want to? Let me know!
The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 shortlist of six books will be announced on 26th March and the winner will be announced on 12th June.
