Dutch writer Yael van der Wouden won the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel *The Safekeep* on June 12, 2025. British palliative-care doctor Rachel Clarke received the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction for *The Story of a Heart*.

Each award carried £30,000 and was open to women writing in English from any country. The fiction prize was established in 1996, while the nonfiction category had been introduced the previous year to address the underrepresentation of women in reviews and established nonfiction awards.

Set in the Netherlands in the early 1960s, *The Safekeep* examines a family, its home and concealed memories from the period after the Second World War. Fiction jury chair Kit de Waal described the novel as sensuous and unsettling and said it illuminated a part of the history of war and the Holocaust that fiction had rarely explored.

Van der Wouden said the book concerned the way history is narrated, including what societies choose to include, exclude or forget. In 2024, she became the first Dutch writer shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In her acceptance speech, she said she was intersex and credited transgender people who had fought for healthcare and changed law and social standards, enabling her to receive the award as a woman.

Clarke’s *The Story of a Heart* follows the medical and human story of organ donation through two children: nine-year-old Keira, who died after a car crash, and Max, whose life was saved by her heart. Nonfiction jury chair Kavita Puri praised Clarke’s research, authority and compassion.

Clarke paid tribute to both families and said the subject was ultimately about life as much as death. She also placed the transplant story within a century of medical advances that made organ donation possible. Clarke said she hoped the book could counter unscientific rhetoric from some politicians in the United States and elsewhere.

The ceremony also marked the prize organisation’s 30th anniversary. Writer Bernardine Evaristo received a £100,000 Outstanding Contribution Award for her influence on literature and support for underrepresented voices. Evaristo shared the 2019 Booker Prize for *Girl, Woman, Other* and was a Women’s Prize finalist the following year.

The two main winners represented different forms of storytelling: Van der Wouden’s novel used domestic secrets to examine historical memory, while Clarke’s nonfiction traced the intimate consequences of medical science. Their selection also reflected the expanded scope of the Women’s Prize programme since the addition of a separate nonfiction honour.