At a ceremony on Thursday in London, The Women’s Prize Trust, which “creates equitable opportunities for women in the world of books,” announced the winner of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction—as well as the winner of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Nonfiction.
The winner of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction, chosen from a shortlist of six, is V. V. Ganeshananthan, for her novel Brotherless Night.
“Brotherless Night is a brilliant, compelling and deeply moving novel that bears witness to the intimate and epic-scale tragedies of the Sri Lankan civil war,” said Monica Ali, chair of judges for the fiction prize. “In rich, evocative prose, Ganeshananthan creates a vivid sense of time and place and an indelible cast of characters. Her commitment to complexity and clear-eyed moral scrutiny combines with spellbinding storytelling to render Brotherless Night a masterpiece of historical fiction.”
Read Ganeshananthan on writing from the diaspora here.
The inaugural winner of the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction is Naomi Klein, for Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.
“This brilliant and layered analysis demonstrates humor, insight and expertise. Klein’s writing is both deeply personal and impressively expansive,” said Suzannah Lipscomb, chair of judges for the nonfiction prize. “Doppelganger is a courageous, humane and optimistic call-to-arms that moves us beyond black and white, beyond Right and Left, inviting us instead to embrace the spaces in between.”
Read Klein’s advice for the next generation of climate activists here.
Both winners will receive a prize of £30,000; along with—for Ganeshananthan—a limited-edition bronze statuette known as the “Bessie,” which was created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven, and—for Klein—a limited-edition artwork known as the “Charlotte,” gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.
