The shortlist for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, a British award celebrating “excellence, originality and accessibility in narrative non-fiction written by women,” has been revealed.
The shortlisted books are The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet; Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt; Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell; Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska; Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy; and Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century by Ece Temelkuran.
Roy’s book was also a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and is on the shortlist for the soon-to-be-announced National Book Critics Circle Award.
The six books on the list "take readers on an illuminating journey across different histories, geographies, politics, and cultures, that both spotlights and scrutinizes humanity’s cruelty, resilience, courage, and adaptability” and are a “testament to how vital women’s writing is to our understanding of the world, and our imagining of tomorrow,” according to an online announcement.
Awarded annually, the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is open to women writers from around the world writing in English whose books are published in the United Kingdom. The prize, which includes a check for £30,000 (about $40,000 U.S.), was first awarded in 2024, to Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World. Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart: Two Families, One Heart, and a Medical Miracle won the prize in 2025.
“Our shortlist shows the power and necessity of women’s writing at a time when recent statistics suggest a decline in non-fiction print sales in the U.K.,” Thangam Debbonaire, the chair of the judging panel, said in a statement. “These books are an urgent antidote to mis- and dis-information, written with high standards of scholarship. 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.”
The winner of the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction will be announced in London on June 11.
Amy Reiter is a writer in Brooklyn.
