US novelists Susan Choi and Lily King are among the six authors shortlisted for this year’s Women’s prize for fiction, a lineup dominated by debut writers and independent publishers. The £30,000 award recognises works that explore “the complexity and beauty of the female experience,” according to judging chair Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia.
Choi’s sixth novel, Flashlight, a historical family saga spanning Indiana to North Korea, was also shortlisted for the 2025 Booker prize. King’s Heart the Lover, also her sixth work, follows a 1980s campus love triangle that reignites in mid-life. Both books received praise in The Guardian for their scope and wit.
Four debut novelists join the shortlist: Addie E Citchens for Dominion, set in a Black church community in the American South; Virginia Evans for The Correspondent, an epistolary novel about ageing; Marcia Hutchinson for The Mercy Step, a coming-of-age story set in 1960s Bradford; and Rozie Kelly for Kingfisher, about an academic’s infatuation with a colleague. Four of the six titles were published by independent presses.
Notable omissions from the shortlist include Katie Kitamura, whose novel Audition was a 2025 Booker finalist, and Kit de Waal, last year’s judging chair. The winner will be announced on 11 June at a London ceremony, alongside the winner of the Women’s prize for nonfiction.
