Arundhati Roy, Sarah Perry and Lea Ypi are among 16 authors longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, a £30,000 award launched in 2024 to address gender imbalance in UK nonfiction prizes. The longlist spans politics, memoir, science, art, history and biography, and includes seven debut authors.
Chair of judges Thangam Debbonaire described the longlist as “hopeful”, representing “women writing excellently on a wide range of subjects, each uncovering something new about our world”. Notable entries include Roy’s first memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me, Perry’s Death of an Ordinary Man and Ypi’s Indignity: A Life Reimagined.
History and politics feature prominently, with Lyse Doucet’s The Finest Hotel in Kabul, Barbara Demick’s Daughters of the Bamboo Grove and Jane Rogoyska’s Hotel Exile. Contemporary issues are tackled in works by Lady Hale, Zakia Sewell and Ece Temelkuran, while science and art are represented by Daisy Fancourt and Harriet Rix.
Other longlisted titles include memoirs by Jenny Evans and Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, biographies by Judith Mackrell and Deepa Paul, and Grace Spence Green’s medical reflections. The shortlist of six titles will be announced in due course.
