The winner of the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is Rachel Clarke’s clear-sighted and vital exploration into the human experience behind organ donation, The Story of a Heart. Congratulations, Rachel!
Winner
The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is the winner of the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. Interweaving two intimate family stories, we meet nine-year old Kiera who dies following a catastrophic car accident and Max, also nine-years old, who faces imminent heart failure due to a viral infection. The Story of a Heart is a clear-sighted, vital exploration into the human experience behind organ donation. Inspiring, profoundly moving and insightful, it celebrates both an indefatigable respect for life, the generosity and tenacity of the human spirit and the sheer miracle of modern science.
The Story of a Heart
The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is an annual book prize that celebrates exceptional narrative non-fiction by women. The Prize promotes excellence in writing, robust research, original narrative voices and accessibility, showcasing women’s expertise across a range of fields.
The Prize is awarded annually and is open to all women writers from across the globe who are published in the UK and writing in English. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition artwork known as the ‘Charlotte’, both gifted by the Charlotte Aitken Trust.
A panel of five women, all passionate readers and at the top of their respective professions, will choose the winner of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.
The whole process starts in the summer of the previous year. We approach potential judges and invite UK publishers to submit eligible books. Full terms and conditions of eligibility can be found here
Judges plunge immediately into reading their allocated books, basing their deliberations for the longlist, shortlist and winner on three core tenets, which mirror its sister fiction prize: excellence, originality and accessibility.
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