Barbara Kingsolver says modern literature is still “struggling with a respect gap” and she is “mad” that the Women’s Prize for Fiction is still necessary.
The US author, 68, said that books by women were still not “discussed or reviewed” in the same way as their male counterparts.
Earlier this month she made history by winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction for the second time – the first author to do so – for her 10th novel Demon Copperhead.
Judges voted “unanimously” to crown the book, a modern retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic David Copperfield, as the winner.
The novel also won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize For Fiction last month alongside Hernan Diaz’s Trust.
Speaking to the i newspaper, Kingsolver said: ”With Demon having received a good deal of respect, I guess I’ve arrived at the point where the world thinks I’m allowed to write whatever.”
The Women’s Prize for Fiction was founded in 1996 by author Kate Mosse after she noted the lack of female writers on the prestigious Booker Prize shortlist.
“It amazes me that we are still struggling with a respect gap,” Kingsolver told the i.
“Our books are not discussed or reviewed or respected in the same way, so it really makes me mad that we still need this prize.”
