Arundhati Roy & Lyse Doucet Shortlisted for Women’s Prize for Nonfiction 2026

Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize-winning novelist and political activist, is among the six writers shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, an award established to address the historical gender imbalance in UK nonfiction prize winners. The shortlist, announced today, also includes BBC chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet and biographer Judith Mackrell.

Roy’s nomination recognizes her memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me, described as an exploration of identity, motherhood, and the creative process. A review in The Guardian called the function “utterly absorbing.” Doucet is recognized for The Finest Hotel in Kabul, a people’s history of Afghanistan told through the lens of the InterContinental hotel, which The Guardian praised as “witty, observant and sometimes heartbreaking.” Mackrell’s shortlisted title, Artists, Siblings, Visionaries, is a dual biography of British artists Gwen and Augustus John, lauded for its “novelistic sensibility” by the same publication.

Rounding out the shortlist are Jane Rogoyska for Hotel Exile, which examines the history of the Hotel Lutetia in Paris during World War II and its use by German military intelligence; Ece Temelkuran for Nation of Strangers, a work on exile, migration, and belonging; and Daisy Fancourt for Art Cure, which investigates the positive impact of the arts on health and wellbeing.

The £30,000 prize was created following research revealing that women comprised only 35.5% of winners across seven major UK nonfiction awards in the preceding decade. New data released alongside the shortlist announcement indicates ongoing disparities within the nonfiction market. While female authors are gaining ground in categories like popular science – increasing from 11% market share in 2023 to 22% in 2025 – and philosophy (rising from 5% to 10%), men continue to dominate fields such as business and management (93%), sport (90%), and politics (82%).

Thangam Debbonaire, chair of the judging panel, stated the shortlist “showcases six exceptional books and six hugely talented writers, and offers readers collectively a timely and timeless interrogation of our world today.” She added that the selected works serve as “an urgent antidote to mis- and disinformation, written with high standards of scholarship,” offering “rich and original insights in what often feels like a fragmented and uncertain world.”

The winner will be announced on June 11th, alongside the winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. The winning author will receive £30,000 and a limited-edition artwork called the Charlotte. Last year’s winner was Dr. Rachel Clarke for The Story of a Heart, while the inaugural prize in 2024 went to Naomi Klein for Doppelganger.

The judging panel also includes Roma Agrawal, engineer, author and broadcaster; Nicola Elliott, founder of Neom Wellbeing; Nina Stibbe, novelist and memoirist; and Nicola Williams, crown court judge and thriller author.