Women’s Prize for Fiction unveils 2025 shortlist featuring four debut novelists tackling identity, history and self-discovery

The Women’s Prize has announced its shortlist for fiction, featuring works that explore personal freedom, the search for identity, and the tension between Western values and cultural traditions.

New voices feature heavily on the shortlist, with four of the six entrants being debut novelists. They are Aria Aber, Sanam Mahloudji, Nussaibah Younis and Vale van der Wouden.

Aber’s Good Girl explores the complexities of a dual identity for a teenager who is born in Germany but ashamed of her Afghan heritage.

Younis’s Fundamentally follows a de-radicalisation programme for ISIS women ran by the United Nations in Iraq, and explores the ethical questions surrounding Western intervention.

Mahloudji’sThe Persians, a family drama told through five women whose fate is intertwined with modern Iran, explores the question of whether it’s possible to free ourselves from our past.

Another debut work is In The Safe Keep by Vale van der Wouden, which follows a woman in her thirties who lives a solitary existence in her late mother’s home but her life is upended when a young woman moves in. The book tackles the impact of emotional repression, historical amnesia and themes of sexual desire and self-discovery.

Narratives of women challenging society’s expectations around motherhood, ageing, self-perception and sexuality also feature strongly on the list.

Miranda July, who has been shortlisted for a second time, portrays an artist’s quest for a new kind of freedom in her mid-forties when she immerses herself on a road trip in All Fours. July is an established filmmaker and performance artist, and she has previously published a short story collection.

Elizabeth Stout’s Tell Me Everything returns to characters from her bestselling novel My Name is Lucy Barton, as the characters narrate their hopes and regrets in their later years. Stout, who is the author of nine other novels, has been longlisted for the prize twice (2014’s The Burgess Boys and 2016’s My Name is Lucy Barton) and shortlisted once for her 2000 book Amy & Isabelle.

The six works were selected by a panel of five judges – Kitde Waal, Diana Evans, Bryony Gordon, Deborah Joseph and Amelia Warner – which had been whittled down from a longlist of 16 authors.

The winner will be announced on Thursday, 12 June at the Women’s Prize Trust’s summer party in central London, alongside the winner of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. The winner will receive a cheque for £30,000 alongside a limited edition bronze statuette known as the “Bessie”, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025 shortlist is as follows:

Kit de Waal, Chair of Judges said that the shortlist selection celebrates “rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move and delight the reader”.

“Over the past three decades the Women’s Prize for Fiction has celebrated imaginative, accomplished novels year after year, and in doing so has helped change the landscape for fiction writing in the UK.”

“Over the past six months, my fellow judges and I have been knee-deep in reading our submissions, consumed by the fully-realised worlds created by an incredible range of voices. Now that we arrive at the announcement of our shortlist, what seems absolutely apparent to me is how perfectly each of these six novels exemplify the original tenets of the Prize: originality, accessibility and sheer brilliance.”

“What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts. I’m in no doubt that these six novels will become the classics of the future.”