Women’s Prize shortlist
The Women’s Prize for Nonfiction 2026 named six finalists — including Arundhati Roy and Lyse Doucet — with a £30,000 award at stake. The shortlist also features Jane Rogoyska, Ece Temelkuran and Daisy Fancourt, with the winner due later this year. ( )
The six shortlisted books are: The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan (Lyse Doucet); Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Transform Our Health (Daisy Fancourt); Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John (Judith Mackrell); Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War (Jane Rogoyska); Mother Mary Comes to Me (Arundhati Roy); and Nation of Strangers: Rebuilding Home in the 21st Century (Ece Temelkuran). (lithub.com)) Arundhati Roy’s memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me was published in 2025 and is listed on the Simon & Schuster publisher page with ISBN details and reviews. (simonandschuster.com)) Lyse Doucet’s The Finest Hotel in Kabul was published by Penguin Random House on November 4, 2025 and has been described as a history of Afghanistan told through Kabul’s Inter-Continental hotel. (penguinrandomhouse.com)) Jane Rogoyska’s Hotel Exile is listed as published by Allen Lane/Penguin Random House in February 2026, with international editions scheduled for Knopf (Canada) and W. W. Norton (USA) later in 2026. (janerogoyska.com)) Daisy Fancourt’s Art Cure was released in early 2026 (hardback January/February 2026) from Celadon/Macmillan in the US and Penguin in the UK, and Judith Mackrell’s Artists, Siblings, Visionaries was published by Picador on 19 March 2026. (us.macmillan.com)) Ece Temelkuran’s Nation of Strangers is published by Canongate with a UK publication date in February 2026 and a US release listed for May 19, 2026 on major bookseller pages. (canongate.co.uk)) The 2026 non-fiction judging panel is chaired by Thangam Debbonaire and includes Roma Agrawal, Nicola Elliott, Nina Stibbe and Nicola Williams, and the winner will be revealed on 11 June 2026 at the Women’s Prize Trust summer party in Bedford Square Gardens, London. (womensprize.com)) The Women’s Prize Trust released commissioned data alongside the shortlist showing continued gender imbalance in UK non-fiction sales—for example, women authors accounted for 22% of Popular Science in 2025 (up from 11% in 2023) while Business & Management remained 93% male-authored in 2025. (womensprize.com))
