2026 Women's Prize for Fiction

The 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction went to Virginia Evans for The Correspondent, her first novel, which tells the life of a woman in her seventies through the letters she writes to family, friends and authors she admires. The winner was named on June 11, 2026, at the Women's Prize Trust's summer celebration in Bedford Square Gardens, London, on the same evening as the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Five other novels reached the shortlist: Flashlight by Susan Choi, Dominion by Addie E. Citchens, The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson, Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly and Heart the Lover by Lily King. A five-member panel chaired by Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia, chose the shortlist in April from a longlist of sixteen books.