The prize will be awarded in a rescheduled ceremony in September.

Organisers of this year’s Women’s prize for Fiction have announced the shortlist of nominees up for the £30,000 prize. 

This year’s prize will see Hilary Mantel, nominated for The Mirror & the Light the concluding part to her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, compete alongside Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, Weather by Jenny Offill and Dominicana by Angie Cruz.  

Angie Cruz’s Dominicana examines the realities of female immigrant experience and the economics of marriage and citizenship as seen through the eyes of 15 year old Ana set in 1960’s New York.

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet brings to life the story of Shakespeare’s youngest son to shine light on a little-referred to part of William Shakespeare’s life and own story.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo follows the lives of twelve women over several decades and through different classes and was named joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments.

Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & The Light is a favourite to win, following the critical acclaim that it was awarded after its publication. This is the concluding part to the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, concentrating on the final years of eventful life.

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes is a retelling of the Trojan War seen through the eyes of women, while Weather by Jenny Offill examines one woman’s fears and anxieties over the current climate emergency.

Now in its 25th year, the Women’s Prize for Fiction will be judged by Chair Martha Lane Fox; writer and activist Scarlett Curtis; writer and activist Melanie Eusebe; co-founder of the Black British Business Awards, author, and comedian Viv Groskop; and Paula Hawkins, international bestselling author of The Girl on the Train.

The winner of the prize will be announced in a ceremony now set to take place on the 9th September, changed from the 3rd of June due to the Coronavirus pandemic.