Claire Shanahan is Executive Director of The Women’s Prize Trust, responsible for strategy, business planning, partnerships, delivery of programmes and projects, and day-to-day operations, working on a part-time basis. Named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2013, Claire began her career in publishing as an editor at Pearson and Hachette before moving to the charity sector. She worked on the Women’s Prize for Fiction for seven years during her time as Head of Arts at BookTrust. Claire has run the BBC Short Story Awards for over a decade and sits on the advisory board of Nesta’s Alternarratives programme. Claire is a passionate advocate of the transformative power of reading and writing, and the ongoing need to invest in and cheerlead women.