Women's Prize for Fiction Winner 2023

The winner of the 2023 Women's Prize for fiction has just been announced. Barbara Kingsolver has won for her novel, Demon Copperhead.  Kingsolver is the first author to have won this award twice, having been recognised in 2010 for her novel The Lacuna. 

Chair of Judges Louise Minchin announced the winner, stating:

“Barbara Kingsolver has written a towering, deeply powerful and significant book. In a year of outstanding fiction by women, we made a unanimous decision on Demon Copperhead as our winner. Brilliant and visceral, it is storytelling by an author at the top of her game. We were all deeply moved by Demon, his gentle optimism, resilience and determination despite everything being set against him.

An exposé of modern America, its opioid crisis and the detrimental treatment of deprived and maligned communities, Demon Copperhead tackles universal themes – from addiction and poverty, to family, love, and the power of friendship and art – it packs a triumphant emotional punch, and is a novel that will withstand the test of time.”

Set in Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains, this is a modern re-imagining of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. 

Kingsolver received the £30,000 prize and the award ‘Bessie’, a limited-edition bronze figurine. She is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, essayist and poet. Kingsolver is probably best known for The Poisonwood Bible (1998), The Lacuna (2009) and Flight Behavior (2012). 

I have started reading this epic novel and am intrigued by the homage to Dickens.