The winners of the 2026 Women’s Prizes for fiction and nonfiction were announced at a ceremony in London on Thursday evening.
Virginia Evans took home the fiction award, given in “celebration of women’s creativity in the world,” for her debut novel, The Correspondent. Evans’ runaway bestseller, about an irascible retired woman who sends letters to a variety of people, has already won the PEN/Hemingway Award and the James Patterson & Bookshop.org Prize; it was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal.
Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, chair of judges for the fiction prize, praised the book as “a remarkable novel, with an exemplary combination of originality, excellence and accessibility,” saying it “should be read and savored by all.”
The nonfiction prize, which recognizes “excellent, original and accessible narrative nonfiction written by female thought-leaders, changemakers, and experts,” went to Lyse Doucet for her debut book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan. The book is a history of the country’s modern era told through the lens of the Inter-Continental Kabul, the luxury hotel that opened in 1969.
British politician Thangam Debbonaire, who chaired the nonfiction jury, called Doucet’s book “a perfect work of narrative nonfiction: it is not only cleverly constructed and brilliantly researched, but each and every element is handled with extraordinary sensitivity and warmth.”
The Women’s Prize for Fiction was established in 1996. Previous winners include Ann Patchett for Bel Canto, Naomi Alderman for The Power, and Ruth Ozeki for The Book of Form and Emptiness. The nonfiction prize was first awarded in 2024; its previous winners are Naomi Klein for Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World and Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle.
Both prizes come with a cash award of 30,000 British pounds, or about $40,000.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
