The news that the Women’s Prize Trust is planning to launch a new book prize for non-fiction by women (Women’s prize to launch annual award for women’s non-fiction writing, 8 February) is welcomed by the British Academy book prize for global cultural understanding, an annual award since 2013 which rewards outstanding works of non-fiction that shine a light on world cultures and the ways they interconnect. The Women’s Prize Trust announced the new award as it believes that “female non-fiction writers are less likely to be reviewed or win prizes than their male counterparts”.
While non-fiction prizes may traditionally have been dominated by male writers, the tide may be turning. Reflecting on last year’s British Academy prize, we are proud that, of a shortlist of six books, four were written by women – which is impressive when the male to female ratio of submissions was 60:40, as in most previous years. Indeed, the 2022 winner, Alia Trabucco Zerán, was the third woman to have won the prize in the past five years, for her exceptional work of creative non-fiction When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold.
We hope that this latest addition to the literary prize landscape will send a clear signal to publishers that there is some superb non-fiction writing by women out there and it is worth investing in. The British Academy is looking at what it can do to support non-fiction writing by younger researchers – work that might become the best-selling non-fiction book prize winners of the future.
Prof Charles Tripp
Chair, British Academy book prize
