18 h. ago Women’s prize winner Yael van der Wouden: ‘It’s heartbreaking to see so much hatred towards queer people’

The winner of this year’s fiction prize on growing up as an outsider, why we’re all guilty of complicity, and using her acceptance speech to reveal that she is intersexIt has been a dramatic couple of years for 37-year-old Dutch author Yael van der Wouden: her first novel, The Safekeep, a love story that deals with the legacy of the Holocaust in the Netherlands, was the focus of a frenzied bidding war and shortlisted for the 2024 Booker prize. Last night it won the Women’s prize for fiction.“I wrote this book from a place of hopelessness,” she says when we meet. “I was looking for a ray of sunshine.” This morning in London the sun is blazing. She could never have expected that her novel would see off shortlisted authors including Miranda July (of whose work she is a big fan) and Elizabeth Strout. Continue reading...

Events

22 h. ago Women's Prize for Fiction is 'greatest honour' as an intersex woman, says winner

The Women's Prize for Fiction 2025 went to Dutch author Yael van der Wouden for her debut novel, The Safekeep. The win, she says, is her "greatest honour" as an intersex woman

Politics

24 h. ago The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025 has gone to a debut author – here’s where to read the winning book

The winning novel is “a classic in the making”

Culture

39 h. ago Women’s Prize for Fiction ‘greatest honour’ as an intersex woman, says winner

Dutch author Yael Van der Wouden will receive £30,000 and a bronze statuette.

Politics

40 h. ago NHS doctor Rachel Clarke and debut novelist Yael van der Wouden win Women’s Prize for Non

Authors will receive £30,000 prize money in recognition of their achievements

Politics

40 h. ago Yael van der Wouden and Rachel Clarke win Women's Prize book awards

Dutch writer Yael van der Wouden won the Women’s Prize for Fiction on Thursday for her debut novel “The Safekeep.”

Events

40 h. ago Debut novel by Dutch author wins 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction

Yael van der Wouden won the award for her novel, The Safekeep, which explores repressed desire and the unresolved aftermath of the Holocaust.

Culture

45 h. ago Queen Camilla praises literary prize for championing women authors for 30th anniversary

Queen Camilla made a surprise appearance at an open-air event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction in London where she hailed the competition for helping female writers

Politics

50 h. ago Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan audiobook review – love and conflict in Sri Lanka

The civil war transforms a young trainee doctor’s life as she copes with her feelings for a Tamil Tiger in last year’s Women’s prizewinning novelBrotherless Night opens with 16-year-old Sashi Kulenthiren, who hopes to be a doctor like her eldest brother, making tea when the kettle slips out of her hand, causing her to pour boiling water on herself. When a neighbour, K, hears her screams, he rushes over to help, cracking raw eggs over the scalds to soothe the pain. “So I began as K’s patient though he ended as mine,” Sashi reflects.Set in 1980s Sri Lanka, VV Ganeshananthan’s coming-of-age novel – which won the 2024 Women’s prize for fiction – is an epic and hard-hitting tale of family and survival as it documents life during the civil war between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese majority that lasted three decades. Before fighting breaks out, Sashi’s most pressing problem is whether she will pass her exams at school. But soon violence and kidnapping become the norm, communities are...

Events

66 h. ago Queen Camilla makes surprise book awards appearance and reveals holiday reading list

Queen Camilla dropped into an event ahead of the 30th annual Women's Prize for Fiction awards, where she met authors as well as book lovers and let them know what she had been reading

Politics

66 h. ago Queen Camilla reveals holiday reading list as she makes surprise book awards appearance

Queen Camilla dropped into an event ahead of the 30th annual Women's Prize for Fiction awards, where she met authors as well as book lovers and let them know what she had been reading

Politics

6 d. ago WWE Money in the Bank 2025 LIVE as Naomi wins the women's briefcase

WWE's Money in the Bank event is coming live from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, as John Cena, Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Rhea Ripley and more look to shine

Economics

1 week ago Bernardine Evaristo scoops Women’s prize outstanding contribution award

One-off £100,000 prize awarded to Girl, Women, Other writer for entire body of work and ‘dedication to uplifting under-represented voices’Bernardine Evaristo is to receive £100,000 after being announced as the winner of the Women’s prize outstanding contribution award, a one-off prize to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women’s prize for fiction.The author of Girl, Woman, Other and Mr Loverman has been rewarded for her entire body of work, as well as her “transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices across the cultural landscape”. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Sweden’s Maja Stark holds off Nelly Korda to win first major at US Women’s Open

25-year-old wins by two shots at Erin HillsKorda finishes in tie for second with Rio TakedaMaja Stark has won tournaments around the world, but a professional victory in the United States eluded her. Now she is a US Women’s Open champion.The Swede shot an even-par 72 to win the second major of the year by two shots on Sunday at Erin Hills. Stark led the championship by one stroke through 54 holes and outlasted the World No 1, Nelly Korda, who got within a shot of the lead before petering out on the back nine. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Maja Stark holds off Nelly Korda at US Women’s Open to win first major

Sweden’s wins by two shots at Erin HillsKorda finishes in tie for second with Rio TakedaMaja Stark has won tournaments around the world, but a professional victory in the United States eluded her. Now she is the US Women’s Open champion. The Swede shot an even-par 72 to win the second major of the year by two shots on Sunday at Erin Hills.Stark led the championship by one stroke through 54 holes and outlasted the World No 1, Nelly Korda, who got within a shot of the lead before petering out on the back nine. Stark was seven underfor the week. Korda (71) tied for second with Japan’s Rio Takeda (72) at five under. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Women’s transfer window summer 2025: all deals from world’s top six leagues

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago ‘Super proud’: Slegers hails Arsenal after Women’s Champions League success

Head coach says Barcelona win was ‘above expectations’‘We had to suffer but were spot on in crucial moments’The Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, said her team’s performance was “above all expectations” after they stunned Barcelona to win the Women’s Champions League title in Lisbon.Cited as the major underdogs before kick-off, Arsenal thwarted a Barcelona side who had won three of the past four finals, and won their first women’s European title since 2007 thanks to substitute Stina Blackstenius’ 74th-minute winner. Continue reading...

Sport

3 w. ago ‘My legal work sows the seeds of my stories’: International Booker prize winner Banu Mushtaq

The author and activist, who was subject to a fatwa in 2000, has won the prestigious prize for translated fiction for her short stories about the lives of Muslim women. She and her translator Deepa Bhasthi explain how Heart Lamp’s themes ‘are universal’• ‘Radical translation’ of Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq wins International Booker prize‘Human beings and their basic nature are the same everywhere,” Banu Mushtaq says. “That is the intention of my writing. The theme is woman, the theme is marginalised people, the theme is to be a voice to the voiceless community.”Mushtaq, from the Karnataka region of southern India, has been “awake all night”, she says, as we speak on the morning after she won the International Booker prize in London for her book Heart Lamp. The prize is shared between Mushtaq and her translator Deepa Bhasthi, who is also present – and also had no sleep. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey review – this dystopia could have been extraordinary

Alternate political realities are compellingly explored in this sinister vision of a children’s home – but the echoes of Ishiguro are just too strongIn 2016 Catherine Chidgey published her fourth novel, The Wish Child, a child’s-eye view of Nazi Germany. Since then the much-garlanded New Zealander has contrived to be not only conspicuously prolific but also intriguingly unpredictable. Though she returned to wartime Germany in her Women’s prize-longlisted Holocaust novel, Remote Sympathy, her work has ranged from the coming-of-age psychological thriller Pet to The Beat of the Pendulum, a “found” novel that drew on everything from conversations and social media posts to news bulletins and even satnav instructions to create a picture of one woman’s life over a year. The Axeman’s Carnival, published in the UK last year, was partly narrated by a magpie. Like The Wish Child it won the Acorn prize for fiction, making Chidgey the only writer to win New Zealand’s mos...

Politics

3 w. ago Indian author Banu Mushtaq wins International Booker Prize with short story collection

Indian author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi have won the International Booker Prize for fiction for “Heart Lamp,” a collection of 12 short stories written over a period of more than 30 years, chronicling the everyday lives and struggles of women in southern India

Culture