The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world.
The 30th winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction is Yael van der Wouden’s unsettling, tightly-plotted debut novel which explores repressed desire and historical amnesia set against the backdrop of the Netherlands post-WWII, The Safekeep. Congratulations, Yael!
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most successful, influential and popular literary prizes in the world, championing and amplifying women’s voices and nurturing a global community of readers.
The Prize was established in 1996 to highlight and remedy the imbalance in coverage, respect and reverence given to women writers versus their male peers, creating a platform for exceptional writing by women to shine.
The Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The winner receives £30,000, anonymously endowed, and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven.
Every year, a panel of five women, all passionate readers and at the top of their respective professions, choose the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
The whole process starts in the summer of the previous year, when we invite UK publishers to submit eligible books.
Submissions for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026 are now open until 29 August 2025 – UK publishers can submit via the entry form here. Full terms and conditions of eligibility can be found here
Judges plunge immediately into reading their allocated books, basing their deliberations for the longlist, shortlist and winner on three core tenets, which have remained the same since the Prize was founded: excellence, originality and accessibility.
2025: The Safekeep
Yael van der Wouden
2024: Brotherless Night
V. V. Ganeshananthan
2023: Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
2022: The Book of Form & Emptiness
Ruth Ozeki
2021: Piranesi
Susannah Clarke
Winner
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is the 30th winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. This unsettling, tightly-plotted debut novel explores repressed desire and historical amnesia against the backdrop of the Netherlands post-WWII. The Safekeep is at once a highly-charged, claustrophobic drama played out between two deeply flawed characters, and a bold, insightful exploration of the emotional aftermath of trauma and complicity.
The Safekeep
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