The Women's prize at 25 co founder Kate Mosse on why we still need it
almost 5 years in The guardian
The prize has become one of the largest annual celebrations of literary talent in the world, but the need to promote women’s voices remains undiminished
In May 1996, beneath the benign painted gaze of whiskered gentlemen at the National Liberal Club in London, I took to the stage to introduce the very first Women’s prize for fiction. The actor and campaigner Juliet Stevenson presented the award to the much-missed Helen Dunmore for her third novel, A Spell of Winter.
Even after 25 years, I still feel a huge sense of excitement listening to the judges debate their shortlist. This year literary legends such as Hilary Mantel (The Mirror & the Light) and Bernadine Evaristo (Girl, Woman, Other) sit alongside Maggie O’Farrell (Hamnet) and Natalie Haynes (A Thousand Ships) with their retellings or reimaginings of history, Jenny Offill’s novel of the climate crisis (Weather), and Angie Cruz taking inspiration from her mother’s life (Dominicana). It is a diverse and exquisite collection of six novels in whose company to spend the summer. Continue reading...
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