The 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist presents a compelling collection of six books that explore the diverse ways women document and interpret the world around them. From deeply personal memoirs to incisive examinations of history, ecology, and social issues, these works demonstrate a commitment to nuance, rigor, and empathy.
Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart Wins the 2025 Prize
Dr. Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart was named the winner at the second annual Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction ceremony held in London on June 12, 2025. The book offers a meticulously researched and emotionally resonant narrative about a child’s heart transplant. Clarke, a palliative care doctor, approaches the subject with clinical precision and profound humanity, highlighting the intertwined experiences of multiple families and the ethical complexities of organ donation. The judges praised the book for its “indefatigable respect for life” and its celebration of both “the generosity and tenacity of the human spirit and the sheer miracle of modern science.”
Finalists Reflect the Breadth of Women’s Non-Fiction
The other finalists on the shortlist address a wide range of topics with exceptional clarity and insight:
A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry: This genre-defying memoir by the musician weaves together themes of race, identity, motherhood, and performance, rejecting simplistic reinvention in favor of a textured exploration of hybridity and cultural resistance.
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton: Beginning with the rescue of an injured hare during lockdown, this work evolves into a meditation on care, autonomy, and the blurred boundaries between wildness and domesticity, challenging traditional nature writing conventions.
Agent Zo: The Untold Story of Courageous WW2 Resistance Fighter Elżbieta Zawacka by Clare Mulley: Mulley revives the complex life of Elżbieta Zawacka, the only female courier for the Polish resistance and British Special Operations Executive during WWII, delivering a nuanced portrayal that avoids heroic clichés while exploring themes of patriotism, gender, and survival.
What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Oceans by Helen Scales: Marine biologist Scales blends scientific inquiry with poetic sensibility to deliver a sober yet hopeful account of oceanic resilience amid environmental crises.
Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang: This structurally innovative book follows four Chinese women navigating ambition, family, and state control, providing a multifaceted view of societal change beyond Western stereotypes.
A Prize Committed to Originality, Excellence, and Accessibility
Launched in 2024 and supported by the Charlotte Aitken Trust with a £30,000 award, the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction aims to recognize outstanding literary achievements by women that might otherwise be overlooked in traditional prize circuits. The prize emphasizes originality, excellence, and accessibility, encouraging readers to engage with complex, sometimes challenging works that illuminate contemporary issues.
This year’s shortlist is notable not just for its diversity of subjects but for its editorial rigor. These books refuse tidy narratives or easy consensus, offering instead dense, thoughtful perspectives that invite reflection. Whether or not every reader agrees with each author’s approach, the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist provides a vital snapshot of serious non-fiction today—worthy of close attention and wide readership.
