The 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction judging lanel, from left: Roma Agrawal, Nina Stibbe, Baroness Thangam Debbonaire (Chair), Nicola Williams, Nicola Elliott).
By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
The Women’s Prize Trust, has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction. Sponsored by Findmypast and supported by the Charlotte Aitken Trust, the prestigious £30,000 prize celebrates the work of female nonfiction writers. This year’s shortlist was pulled from a longlist of 16 titles, announced last month, spanning politics, memoir, science, history, biography, and art.The shortlist includes:
- The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet (Hutchinson Heinemann, Cornerstone, Penguin Random House U.K.).
- Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt (Cornerstone Press, Cornerstone, Penguin Random House U.K.).
- Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell (Picador, Pan Macmillan).
- Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska (Allen Lane, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House U.K.).
- Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin General, Penguin Random House U.K.).
- Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century by Ece Temelkuran (Canongate).
In a release, the organizers noted that these six “exceptional” books represent “far-reaching, global stories, spanning Asia, Europe and the Middle-East, but by giving a voice to individual experiences and perspectives.
“Our shortlist shows the power and necessity of women’s writing at a time when recent statistics suggest a decline in nonfiction print sales in the U.K.,” said Thangam Debbonaire, Chair of Judges, in a statement. “They offer rich and original insights, in what often feels like a fragmented and uncertain world. They are six books of authority, told with humanity.”
Claire Shanahan, Executive Director of the Women’s Prize Trust, added that the prize, which was first awarded in 2024 was chartered to combat the systemic underrepresentation in most narrative nonfiction disciplines. “This exceptional shortlist, so thoughtfully selected by our judging panel, to whom I give my utmost thanks, shines a light on the brilliant women writing such bold and accomplished nonfiction.”
In addition to Thangram, this year’s judging panel includes engineer, author and broadcaster Roma Agrawal; Nicola Elliott, founder of NEOM Wellbeing; novelist and memoirist Nina Stibbe; and Nicola Williams, Crown Court judge and thriller author.
The importance of the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, now in its third year, is demonstrated by new data commissioned by the Women’s Prize Trust, prize organizers said, which found that, despite some progress being made by women writers, male writers continue to dominate most nonfiction disciplines.
At the recently concluded London Book Fair, a panel (which included Shanahan and Agrawal) highlighted the challenges facing women writing nonfiction, said the data showed only 26.5% of nonfiction reviews in national newspapers are books by women; only 33.3% of nonfiction prizes have been awarded to women over the past 10 years; and women nonfiction writers are on average paid 36% less than male writers.
The winner of the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction will be revealed on Thursday 11 June 2026 at the Women’s Prize Trust’s summer party in Bedford Square Gardens, London (along with the winner of its sister prize, the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction).