Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2025: Neneh Cherry, Yuan Yang, and Rachel Clarke in shortlist
Musical memoirs, medical histories, and international workplace insights populate the second annual shortlist of the Ladies’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
The Ladies’s Prize for Non-Fiction has introduced its 2025 shortlist. The 16 works longlisted in February have been whittled down to 6 writers together with Swedish singer Neneh Cherry, British-Chinese language MP Yuan Yang and British doctor Rachel Clarke.
Overseas coverage knowledgeable Chloe Dalton, historian Clare Mulley, and marine biologist Helen Scales are additionally shortlisted for the £30,000 (€35,900) prize. From the preliminary shortlist that featured 5 non-British writers, just one stays: Neneh Cherry.
It’s the second version of the Non-Fiction prize after it was launched in 2024 to have fun books launched in 2023. The sister prize to the Ladies’s Prize for Fiction, Canadian creator Naomi Klein was the primary recipient of the non-fiction prize for “Doppelganger”, her critique of political polarization via the self-esteem of being frequently mistaken for Naomi Wolff.
This yr’s shortlist covers a breadth of subjects from historical past, science and nature, to present affairs and memoir.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to announce six books on our 2025 shortlist from throughout genres, which can be united by an unforgettable voice, rigour, and distinctive perception,” Kavita Puri, judging chair mentioned.
“Included in our record are narratives that honour the pure world and its bond with humanity, meticulously researched tales of girls difficult energy, and books that illuminate advanced topics with authority, nuance and originality,” Puri continued.
Cherry was shortlisted for her deeply affecting memoir, “A Thousand Threads”, which traces her musical profession and life via the emotional highs and lows that formed them, whereas Yang was chosen for her intimate portrait of 4 Chinese language ladies in “Personal Revolutions”.
“The Story of a Coronary heart” is the most recent work from Rachel Clarke, the physician who wrote “Breathtaking”, the memoir of her time within the NHS in the course of the first wave of Covid-19. Her newest explains the historical past of coronary heart surgical procedure via the story of two youngsters related by a coronary heart transplant.
Longlisted books that didn’t make the shortlist embody American Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum’s “Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Wish to Run the World” which tackles the democratic threats of kleptocratic authoritarianism.
The award is open globally to any books by feminine writers revealed within the UK between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Alongside Puri, the panel of judges contains writers Dr Leah Broad, Elizabeth Buchan, Dr Elizabeth-Jane Burnett and Emma Gannon.
The non-fiction prize was based after a survey revealed that solely 35.5% of books awarded a non-fiction prize previously decade have been written by ladies, throughout seven UK non-fiction prizes. In addition they decided that, as of 2022, simply 26.5% of non-fiction books by feminine writers have been reviewed in nationwide newspapers.
Shortlist for the Ladies’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2025:
- “A Thousand Threads” by Neneh Cherry
- “The Story of a Coronary heart” by Rachel Clarke
- “Elevating Hare” by Chloe Dalton
- “Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Brave WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka” by Clare Mulley
- “What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Way forward for the World’s Ocean” by Helen Scales
- “Personal Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China” by Yuan Yang
