The second annual Women's Prize for Non-Fiction longlist has been revealed! This prize celebrates non-fiction written by women. The Winner will receive £30,000. Sixteen works of non-fiction were longlisted.
The 2025 longlist is as follows:
This is a timely book that I am keen to read. Journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gulag: A History (2003), turns her attention to the corrupt networks that infiltrate governments. Given what is happening in America right now, this feels like an urgent road map to return to democracy.
Eleanor Barraclough - Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age
We often associate Vikings with strong warriors plundering villages. In fact, the people of the Viking Age were much more diverse. This book looks at the day-to-day lives of the Viking people and their culture. Author Barraclough is a historian and broadcaster who previously published Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas (2016).
First cousins, Richard and Henry were born three months apart. As children, Richard was crowned King, and Henry served at his side. Despite their close upbringing, they were opposites: Richard a narcissist and Henry a chivalric hero. Fearful, Richard banished his cousin, leading the pair to a confrontation. Acclaimed medieval and Tudor historian Castor, is also the author of She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth (2010).
Nenah Cherry - A Thousand Threads
Swedish singer-songwriter Cherry achieved global success with 'Buffalo Stance' in 1988. She went on to have a lauded career, winning awards for her music. Cherry has now written a memoir of her life as an artist, and the people who influenced her.
Rachel Clarke - The Story of a Heart
Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke, is the author of three bestselling non-fiction books. Here she writes about nine-year-old Keira who was in a devastating car accident. Keira's brain and organs began to shut down, but her heart continued to beat. Her family agreed to donate her heart and it was gifted to nine-year old Max. Clarke tells this story of grief and a lifesaving gift.
Chloe Dalton - Raising Hare
During lockdown, Dalton retreated to the countryside of her childhood and found herself the custodian of a newborn hare. This book is the story of nurturing the animal and preparing it for release in the wild. Dalton is a political adviser and foreign policy specialist who has spent a decade in the UK public service. This is her debut book.
Fagan was born in state care in Scotland and by age seven had lived in fourteen different homes. In her memoir, Fagan described her experiences of displacement and exclusion on her journey through the UK care system. Novelist and poet. Fagan is the author of novels The Panopticon (2013), The Sunlight Pilgrims (2016), Luckenbooth (2021) and Hex (2022).
Lulu Miller - Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life
In her debut book, science reporter Miller explores the work of David Starr Jordan, a 19th century taxonomist. Jordan was a fish specialist mapping out the taxonomy on fish when an earthquake shatters his specimen collection. Besides his work as a scientist, Jordan was also a champion of eugenics and president of Stanford University.
Clare Mulley - Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Fearless WW2 Resistance Fighter Elzbieta Zawacka
Historian Mulley has a keen interest in the experience of women in the Second World War. Here she tells the story of Zo, an emissary of the Polish Home Army Command who travelled from Warsaw to London. Zo was the only female member of the elite Polish Special Forces. The Gestapo arrested her family when the Nazis occupied Poland. She also took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising. Sounds like an incredible story of a remarkable woman.
Rebecca Nagle - By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
Award-winning journalist and Cherokee woman Nagle book is about the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands throughout American history. In 2020 a Supreme Court ruling in Sharp v Murphy affirmed that tribal lands are "Indian country" and any crimes committed on these lands are not subject to state prosecution. Nagle traces the long fight for sovereignty in Eastern Oklahoma.
Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gaugin is best known for his colourful paintings of French Polynesia. In this biography, Prideaux writes about his career as a stockbroker in Paris, a tarpaulin salesman in Copenhagen, a canal digger in Panama, and other diverse endeavours as well as his life as an artist. Prideaux has previously written biographies of Edvard Munch, Strindberg, Friedrich Nietzsche.
Helen Scales - What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World's Ocean
Marine biologist and author, Scales explores the future of the ocean by looking at the past and how the prehistoric ocean ecology has lessons for today. Despite the devastating impact of climate change, Scales is hopeful that protection of the ocean and marine life combined with sustainable industry will protect the ocean for future generations.
Bestselling author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2008), award-winning author Kate Summerscale has turned her attention to another grizzly crime. In London in 1953 police discover the bodies of three young women inside a wall at a Notting Hill terrace. Exploring further they find bones beneath the floorboards and in the garden. A manhunt is launched to find a former tenant Reg Christie. But is he the killer?
Harriet Wistrich - Sister in Law: Fighting for Justice in a System Designed by Men
Solicitor and advocate for women's justice, Harriet Wistrich, has acted in many high profile cases involving violence against women. In this book she explores landmark cases that demonstrate how the legal system is skewed towards men. I have a keen interest in gender and justice and look forward to reading this account of Wistrich's career in law.
I am thrilled that Waanyi author Alexis Wright has been recognised for her Stella Prize winning memoir of Aboriginal Tracker Tilmouth. Part of Australia's shameful Stolen Generation past, Tracker was raised on a mission on Corker Island and grew up to become a well-regarded activist and advocate. Using oral history and storytelling from Aboriginal folk who knew him, Wright has crafted a memoir of a remarkable man.
Yuan Yang - Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in New China
As the first Chinese-born British MP, Yuan Yang lived in China for four years before she moved to the UK. As an adult she returned as a journalist. Here, in her first book, she tells the stories of four Chinese women aspiring for a better future. China is evolving in the modern era and the role of women is changing with it. Sounds like an interesting portrait of women and a nation.
The Chair of the Judges, Kavita Puri, said of the Longlist:
'What unites these diverse titles, that boast so many different disciplines and genres, is the accomplishment of the writing, the originality of the storytelling and the incisiveness of the research. Here are books that provoke debate and discussion, that offer insight into new experiences and perspectives, and that bring overlooked stories back to life and recognition. Amongst this stellar list, there are also reads that expertly steer us through the most pressing issues of our time, show the resilience of the human spirit, alongside others that elucidate the dangers of unchecked power, the consequence of oppression and the need for action and defiance.'
I have not read any of these titles, but I have a keen interest in the books by Applebaum, Mulley, Nagle and Wistrich. Some are not yet available in Australia so I will have to wait to track them down.
The shortlist will be announced on 26 March 2025 and the winner will be revealed on 12 June 2025. Happy reading!
Want more? Here is the video of the Longlist announcement.