Arundhati Roy makes Women’s Prize non‑fiction list

Arundhati Roy is on the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist for *Mother Mary Comes to Me*, her first memoir. (womensprize.com) The six-book shortlist was announced on March 25, 2026, by the Women’s Prize Trust, which said the finalists span migration, conflict, wellbeing, art and memoir. The winner will be announced on June 11 in London. (womensprize.com) Roy’s book centers on her relationship with her mother, Mary Roy, and publisher Simon & Schuster describes it as Roy’s first work of memoir. The publisher says the book traces how Mary Roy shaped her “as a woman and a writer.” (simonandschuster.com) Mary Roy was a public figure in her own right before this memoir reached the prize list. *The Indian Express* notes that she won a 1986 Supreme Court case that gave Syrian Christian women in Kerala equal inheritance rights. (indianexpress.com) The shortlist places Roy in a prize that the Women’s Prize Trust says honors narrative nonfiction by women. The organization launched the award in 2024 as a companion to the long-running Women’s Prize for Fiction. (womensprize.com) The award was created after years of data showing women were underrepresented in nonfiction attention and prizes in Britain. The Associated Press reported that in 2022, women wrote 26.5% of nonfiction books reviewed in British newspapers, while male writers dominated established nonfiction awards. (abcnews.com) This is the prize’s third cycle, and its recent winners help show how quickly it has become part of the spring books calendar. Naomi Klein won the inaugural 2024 award for *Doppelganger*, and Rachel Clarke won in 2025 for *The Story of a Heart*. (womensprize.com 1) (womensprize.com 2) Roy reached this stage after first making the 16-book longlist announced on February 11, 2026. The Women’s Prize Trust said that list included seven debuts and books across politics, memoir, science, history, biography and art. (womensprize.com) The other 2026 finalists are Lyse Doucet’s *The Finest Hotel in Kabul*, Jane Rogoyska’s *Hotel Exile*, Ece Temelkuran’s *Nation of Strangers*, Daisy Fancourt’s *Art Cure*, and Judith Mackrell’s *Artists, Siblings, Visionaries*. Roy’s memoir is the only shortlisted book built around a mother-daughter life story. (womensprize.com) The next date is June 11, when the judges will choose between six books and one of them will carry Roy’s memoir from shortlist to winner. Until then, *Mother Mary Comes to Me* sits in the center of one of the year’s biggest English-language nonfiction prizes for women. (womensprize.com)