© Emmanuel Iduma

Award-winning Nigerian Writer, Ayọbámi Adébáyọ, is among the judging panel for the soon-to-be released longlist of the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year. The panel is chaired by award-winning author Monica Ali. Along with Adébáyọ̀, the other judges include author, illustrator, scriptwriter and performance poet Laura Dockrill; actor Indira Varma; and campaigner, podcaster and author Anna Whitehouse (Mother Pukka). Noteworthy is also the introduction of the inaugural Non-Fiction prize. Historian, author and broadcaster Lipscomb will lead Anne Sebba, Kamila Shamsie, Nicola Rollock and Venetia La Manna on the judging panel for the launch of the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. The winner of each prize, both to be announced on June 13, is set to receive £30,000 and a limited-edition statuette named the Bessie for the Fiction Prize – sculpted by the late Grizel Niven – and a specially commissioned sculpture named the Charlotte for the Non-Fiction Prize.

2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction judging panel (Sam Holden/PA)

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most celebrated literary prizes dedicated to awarding the best of contemporary fiction written by women. It has crowned 28 winners thus far–including 2023’s winner Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead.

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is an award-winning novelist whose debut, Stay with Me, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2017, and follow-up, A Spell of Good Things, was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Ayọ̀bámi, studied at Obafemi Awolowo University, earning degrees in Literature. She went on to study Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she now teaches. In 2017, Ayọ̀bámi won The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts and Culture.

The longlist for the Women’s Prize for fiction will be released on the 5th of March.