Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 shortlist is announced
Miranda July and Elizabeth Strout are shortlisted alongside four debut novelists for the 30th Women's Prize for Fiction.
The shortlist for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction, the thirtieth year of the prize, was announced on 2 April 2025. The six books are Good Girl by Aria Aber (Bloomsbury), All Fours by Miranda July (Canongate), The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji (4th Estate), Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (Viking), The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Viking) and Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
Four of the six are debut novels: Good Girl, The Persians, The Safekeep and Fundamentally. The Safekeep had already been shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.
The judges were chaired by the novelist Kit de Waal, with Diana Evans, Bryony Gordon, Deborah Joseph and Amelia Warner. The winner, who receives £30,000, was due to be announced on 12 June 2025.
Four debuts out of six is a notable proportion for a major prize. It suggests the judges were reading without much regard to reputation, and it gives first-time novelists, and the editors who took them on, a kind of attention that is otherwise hard to come by. Readers get a list that is weighted towards new voices without being short of experience.
Sources: Women's Prize: Announcing the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist; Women's Prize: Announcing the 2025 winners of the Women's Prizes.