CC: Women's Nonfiction Prize Challenge

The Women's Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes. It is awarded each year to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English.

Last year it was joined by a 'sister prize', the Women's Prize for Non-fiction, a prize for non-fiction writing by women.

They've just announced the 2025 longlist and it looks super! I can certainly see quite a few books I want to read, and there's a great variety of subjects.

There are 16 books on the list. I thought it might be fun to read some of them together. So I'm going to set up a series of three swaps.

Each swap will list 5 or 6 books from the list. Choose one and read it, and then email your partners with your comments and responses. It's up to you what you say, but you might want to think about questions like why did you choose this book? Was there anything that surprised you? Was it a subject you already knew something about or was it new to you? What did you think about the style? How accessible did you find the book? Did you feel you learned something from reading it? Would you like to read something else by this author? Is it a subject you'd want to read more about? Would you recommend it as a good read? Give your partners a short summary of the book as well (without spoilers!) so they can decide if it's one they might want to read.

You need to write a paragraph or more, not just a couple of sentences.

Don't forget to rate your partners!

Obviously if you want to listen to an audiobook rather than reading the print book, that's absolutely fine.

This month's books:

Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World by Anne Applebaum

Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough

The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor

A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry

The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke

I'll give us a good length of time so that we all have time to choose a book and get hold of a copy, and then to read it. I've already ordered a couple from my local public library! Obviously you can start reading now, before partners are assigned.

The Women's Prize website has more information about each of the books, the judges, etc.

The fiction longlist will be announced at the end of March. If some of us are interested, I'm happy to set up some fiction reading challenge swaps as well.