Waterstones has announced the shortlist for its 2025 Debut Fiction Prize, highlighting six emerging authors whose work the retailer described as “astonishingly impressive and inspiring.” The finalists—Catherine Airey, William Rayfet Hunter, Lucy Steeds, Gurnaik Johal, Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin, and Lisa Ridzén—were selected from a wide pool of debut authors across the literary landscape.
The award, now in its fourth year, recognizes first-time novelists who show exceptional promise. Bea Carvalho, Waterstones’ head of books, praised the shortlist for offering “a bright and promising future for fiction,” noting the books’ engaging themes and distinctive literary voices.
Catherine Airey was selected for Confessions, a multigenerational family saga that author Daisy Hildyard called “a cool, bold image of female pain and liberation.”
William Rayfet Hunter made the list for Sunstruck, which follows a musician’s summer at a lavish French mansion. Guardian reviewer Houman Barekat described it as “a lively beach read” blending emotional depth with “Saltburn-style” drama.
Lucy Steeds’ The Artist follows a young journalist’s visit to a reclusive artist in Provence. Reviewer Christobel Kent praised its “lavish, luxurious description” and “considered interrogation of the value of art.”
The remaining titles are Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal, Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin, and When the Cranes Fly South by Swedish author Lisa Ridzén, translated by Alice Menzies. Ridzén’s novel—about an elderly man facing separation from his dog—marks the first translated work to be shortlisted.
Chosen from more than 600 nominations by Waterstones booksellers, the shortlist explores themes of art, identity, first love, chosen family, and transformation. Carvalho noted the list’s “playful prose” and celebration of “art and transgression.”
The winner will be announced on July 24 and awarded £5,000, along with ongoing support for their writing career. Past winners include Tess Gunty, Alice Winn, and Ferdia Lennon, whose Glorious Exploits later received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.
