Women's Prize for Fiction
The 2026 Judges
“There have been times in my life when I had too little time for reading. Now I am delighted to have the opportunity to plunge headlong into many vibrant works of fiction by women and to work with a joyful panel of judges to highlight the books that really speak to us and shine.” – Julia Gillard, chair of the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction
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 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction panel is chaired by former Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. Joining Julia on the fiction judging panel is Mona Arshi, poet, novelist and essayist, Salma El-Wardany, author, presenter, poet and speaker, Cariad Lloyd, writer, podcaster, actor and comedian, and Annie Macmanus, author, broadcaster and DJ.
Julia Gillard was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia. She currently serves as the inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, which through research, practice and advocacy, is addressing women’s under-representation in leadership. In 2021 she was appointed as the Chair of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation which supports science to solve urgent health challenges. She recently completed her appointment leading the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care in South Australia. Her second book Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons is co-authored by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and was released in 2020. Her third book, Not Now, Not Ever – 10 years on from the misogyny speech, was released in October 2022.
Mona Arshi is a poet, novelist and essayist, who previously trained as a human rights lawyer at Liberty. Her debut collection Small Hands won the Forward Prize for best first collection in 2015; her second Dear Big Gods was published in 2019. Her writing has been featured in The Times, The Guardian, Granta, The Yale Review and The Times of India as well as on the London Underground. In 2020, she was awarded an Honorary Professorship at the University of Liverpool and appointed a fellow in creative arts at Trinity College, Cambridge. Her novel Somebody Loves You (2021) was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize, Desmond Eliot Prize and Jhalak Prize. Mona is co-editor of an anthology, Nature Matters (2025). Her third poetry collection Mouth was published in July 2025.
Salma El-Wardany is the author of the critically acclaimed These Impossible Things (2022), which was a Today Show Book Club Pick, a Marie Claire Book Club Pick, and named a ‘Best Book Pick’ by Bustle, Fortune, Red Magazine, and BookRiot. It was also longlisted for the 2023 Diverse Book Awards. Salma has contributed essays in many bestselling anthologies, including It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith. For the last six years she presented on BBC Radio London, and still presents across BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. Salma is also a TEDx speaker and a global keynote speaker, and has written for Stylist, Red Magazine, HuffPost, Metro, and The i. Her work centres on feminism and gender, revolving around female stories to bring the often-ignored realities of women into the spotlight. She partners with global organisations, brands, and academic institutions to change the lives of women and girls.
Cariad Lloyd is a writer, actor, comedian and podcaster. In 2016, she created the podcast, Griefcast, where she spoke to comedians about their experiences of grief and death. Her book, based on the podcast, You Are Not Alone, was published in 2023 to critical acclaim and became a Times bestseller. As an actor she has appeared in Changing Ends, Alan Partridge, Murder in Successville, Peep Show, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You and QI. She is also the co-creator of Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel, who perform regularly in London’s West End. Her children’s books, Lydia Marmalade and the Christmas Wish, a middle grade Regency magical mystery and Where Did She Go?, a picture book about grief for children (illustrated by Tom Percival) were published this year. She also co-hosts the Weirdos Book Club podcast with Sara Pascoe, a weekly podcast for all the weirdos in literature.
Annie Macmanus is an internationally renowned DJ, broadcaster and a bestselling author. Annie runs the hugely successful clubbing concept Before Midnight and can be seen in the booth and on the biggest stages of music festivals and clubs around the world. She presented the flagship new music show on BBC Radio 1 for 17 years before leaving to concentrate on writing and podcasting. Since then she has written two critically acclaimed novels, the Sunday Times bestselling Mother Mother (2021) and The Mess We’re In (2023), whose rights have been bought for adaptation by It’s All Made Up Productions, the Liverpool based company who co-produced the biggest TV show of 2025 so far, Adolescence. Her writing has also featured in The Guardian, Irish Times, Stylist and Independent. Her podcast Changes ran for four years, accruing over nine million downloads, and now she presents BBC weekly podcast Sidetracked alongside Nick Grimshaw in which she interviews the biggest names in music, from Robert Smith to Kylie Minogue to Stevie Wonder.
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