Women's Prize Winners 2025

The Winners of the 2025 Women's Prize have been announced! 

The Non-Fiction prize was awarded to Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart, while the Fiction prize was presented to Yael van der Wouden for The Safe Keep. Each author receives £30,000 The Women's Prize also announced a one-off Outstanding Contribution Award would be presented to Bernadine Evaristo in recognition of her body of work and her advocacy for women.

Women's Prize for Fiction

The Safe Keep is set fifteen years after the end of World War II, the Netherlands is quiet and has been reconstructed. In a rural Dutch province, Isabel lives a peaceful life in her late mother's country home. When her brother Louis and his girlfriend Eva show up for an extended stay, Isabel's life is disrupted in ways she could not have imagined. With great skill, the author navigates the post-war reckoning and the legacy of loss and dispossession. Dutch author Yael van der Wouden is a lecturer in literature and creative writing, and this is her first novel. The Safe Keep was also shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. I loved this novel, and as I wrote in my review (available on this blog) the story is engrossing ad the characters stay with you long after you finish reading. 

Kit de Waal, Chair of Judges, said of the winner:

‘The Safe Keep is that rare thing: a masterful blend of history, suspense and historical authenticity. Every word is perfectly placed, page after page revealing an aspect of war and the Holocaust that has been, until now, mostly unexplored in fiction. It is also a love story with beautifully rendered intimate scenes written with delicacy and compelling eroticism. This astonishing debut is a classic in the making, a story to be loved and appreciated for generations to come. Books like this don’t come along every day.’

I am delighted that Yael van der Wouden has been recognised for this novel.  As I wrote in my assessment of the shortlist, I had hoped that Miranda July would win for All Fours, but if it couldn't be July, I am so pleased that van der Wouden has been recognised.

Women's Prize for Non-Fiction

Palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke 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. Max had been in hospital for a year with a virus which affected his heart. Clarke tells this story of grief and a lifesaving gift, and the impact on two families. Rachel Clarke is the author of three bestselling non-fiction books including Breathtaking (which was adapted into a tv series) and Dear Life about her work in an NHS hospice (which was nominated for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize). 

Kavita Puri, Chair of Judges, said of the winner:

‘The Story of a Heart left a deep and long-lasting impression on us. Clarke’s writing is authoritative, beautiful and compassionate. The research is meticulous, and the story-telling is expertly crafted. She holds this precious story with great care and tells it with dignity, interweaving the history of transplant surgery seamlessly. This is a book where humanity shines through on every page, from the selfless act of the parents who gift their daughter’s heart in the depths of despair, to the dedication of the NHS workers. It is unforgettable, and will be read for many years to come.’.

I have not read this book but it sounds like an incredibly moving story.

Outstanding Contribution Award

To celebrate 30 years of the Women's Prize for Fiction, a special award was created for an author "in recognition of her body of work, her significant contribution to literature, and her strong advocacy for women.” To be eligible, authors must have been previously longlisted, shortlisted or winners of the Women’s Prize for Fiction in the past thirty years and they must have published a minimum of five books. The award was presented to Bernadine Evaristo in recognition of her work.

Kate Mosse, Women's Prizes Founder Director, said:

We felt that Bernardine Evaristo’s beautiful, ambitious and inventive body of work (which includes plays, poetry, essays, monologues and memoir as well as award-winning fiction), her dazzling skill and imagination, and her courage to take risks and offer readers a pathway into diverse and multifarious worlds over a forty-year career, made her the ideal recipient of the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award. Significantly, Evaristo has consistently used her own magnificent achievements and exceptional talent as a springboard to create opportunities for others, to promote unheard and under-heard women’s voices and to ensure that every female writer feels she has a conduit for her talent. Congratulations to Bernardine and a huge thank you to my fellow judges for such a joyous and celebratory process.

When I wrote about this award I had anticipated it might go to Margaret Atwood or Barbara Kingsolver might win. While I had not selected Evaristo, I am so pleased that she won and I concur with Kate Mosse's sentiments above. I had the great fortune of seeing Evaristo speak and meeting her at the 2023 Sydney Writers' Festival and she is tremendous. 

Want more?

The Women's Prizes were presented at a celebration in London on 12 June 2025. Here is a video of the presentation.