The Women's Prize Trust announces Findmypast as the inaugural sponsor of the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction
3-4 minute read
By Daisy Goddard | June 14, 2024
We are delighted to announce this exciting new partnership.
The Women's Prize Trust is a UK-based charity that champions the work of female writers and is best known for its annual Women's Prize for Fiction. Starting in 2024, the Trust is expanding into new territory with the launch of the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.
In February 2023, research revealed the obstacles faced by female non-fiction writers, who are less likely to receive media coverage and recognition for their work than their male counterparts, with a significant pay disadvantage. Out of the top 500 bestselling non-fiction books in 2022, only 30% were written by women. Prompted by these findings, the Women's Prize Trust has launched an all-new prize for narrative non-fiction, which is open to all female writers who are published in the UK and write in English.
The books shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023. Learn more about them here.
With topics ranging from science and sport to memoir and philosophy, the prize will 'celebrate excellence in writing, robust research, original narrative voices and accessibility'. Starting in 2024, it will be awarded annually. With a 16-book longlist and a six-book shortlist, it will run on a similar timetable to the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Findmypast is supporting the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction for an initial term of three years, beginning in 2024. The Women's Prize Trust joins our group of reputable partners, which includes The National Archives, the British Library and the National Trust.
And the winner is...
A huge congratulations to Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger, the winner of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein.
We’re delighted to sponsor this vital prize to champion women authors and highlight under-represented stories.
The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2024 longlist
- The Britannias: An Island Quest, Alice Albinia
- Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom, Grace Blakeley
- Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, Cat Bohannon
- Intervals, Marianne Brooker
- Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century, Joya Chatterji
- Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death, Laura Cumming
- Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in the Philippines, Patricia Evangelista
- Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life, Anna Funder
- Matrescence: On the Metamorphosis of Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood, Lucy Jones
- Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein
- A Flat Place, Noreen Masud
- All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, Tiya Miles
- Code-Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI, Madhumita Murgia
- The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary, Sarah Ogilvie
- Young Queens: The Intertwined Lives of Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary, Queen of Scots, Leah Redmond Chang
- How to Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir, Safiya Sinclair
With topics ranging from South Asian history to the Oxford English Dictionary, these varied and interesting works span the globe, and cover hundreds of years of history.
Meet the judges
A panel of five esteemed judges has been chosen to select the winner of the first Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.
The chair, historian and broadcaster Professor Suzannah Lipscomb will be joined by fair fashion campaigner Venetia La Manna, academic, author and consultant Professor Nicola Rollock, biographer and journalist Anne Sebba and author and 2018 winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Kamila Shamsie.
In addition to sponsoring this groundbreaking new prize, we are also supporting the Women's Prize Trust's outreach programme. It was established to find the next generation of female non-fiction writers, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds, and help to bring their books to market.
Here at Findmypast, we're passionate about helping people to uncover forgotten stories. Through exploring family trees, censuses from The National Archives, historical newspapers from the British Library, military records, passenger lists and much more, anyone can build a detailed picture of how people have experienced the world in times gone by. Powerful search technology, an innovative family tree builder, and personalised hints make research easier than ever.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction has been a force for change, and we’re thrilled to play a part in launching the new non-fiction prize, which promises to be equally transformational. Highlighting under-represented stories is a passion for Findmypast, and as the exclusive publisher of some of the world’s largest historical data sets, such as the 1921 Census of England and Wales and the British Newspaper Archive, we are able to bring the experience of women through history into sight. We are dedicated to helping writers and researchers discover fresh narratives that illuminate both our personal histories and our lives in the world today. In the coming years, with this partnership, we hope to empower even more women working within the field of non-fiction.
Have you made your own discovery, using our 14-billion-strong record collection? We'd love to hear about the stories that you've uncovered; you can now get in touch with us directly using this handy form.
