Yael van der Wouden wins 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction

Dutch debut novelist Yael van der Wouden has won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction with The Safekeep, while physician Rachel Clarke claimed the Nonfiction Prize for The Story of a Heart. Both receive £30,000 (approximately Rs 35 lakh )and the ‘Bessie’ statuette.

Van der Wouden’s winning novel, set in postwar Netherlands, explores Jewish identity through a haunting family saga. The intersex author dedicated her win to trans activists, sharing how her own healthcare struggles informed her writing. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden is the 30th winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. This unsettling, tightly-plotted debut novel explores repressed desire and historical amnesia against the backdrop of the Netherlands post-WWII. The Safekeep is at once a highly-charged, claustrophobic drama played out between two deeply flawed characters, and a bold, insightful exploration of the emotional aftermath of trauma and complicity.

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(womensprize.com)

Clarke’s winning work offers a profound exploration of organ transplantation, blending medical history with deeply personal narratives.

Shortlists:

Fiction:

Good Girl – Aria Aber

All Fours – Miranda July

The Persians – Sanam Mahloudji

Tell Me Everything – Elizabeth Strout

The Safekeep – Yael van der Wouden

Fundamentally – Nussaibah Younis

Nonfiction:

A Thousand Threads – Neneh Cherry

The Story of a Heart – Rachel Clarke

Raising Hare – Chloe Dalton

Agent Zo – Clare Mulley

What the Wild Sea Can Be – Helen Scales

Private Revolutions – Yuan Yang

The judging panel, chaired by author Kit de Waal, praised The Safekeep as “a masterful blend of history and suspense.” Established in 1996 to address gender inequality in publishing, the Women’s Prize continues to champion exceptional writing by women.