Women's Prize Nonfiction Longlist 2026: Three Books I'm Watching

I love the Women's Prize. I attend their summer events, I've been a patron, and I try to read the shortlists for both fiction and nonfiction.

They just announced their Longlist for Nonfiction, which is a relatively new category for them. I’ve got my eye on these three :

• The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet - if you don’t know her by name, you’d know her voice and face. Along with Christiane Amanpour, Doucet is one of the world's most prominent and respected international correspondents. I met her at a party once and we discussed cheese.

• Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick - another book from another foreign correspondent. It’s almost like we need independent journalism to shed light on stories around the world. Who would’ve thought?

• Indignity by Lea Ypi - I enjoyed Ypi’s first book, Free (a memoir of coming of age amid political upheaval in Albania), so I’m willing to give her second book a try.

You can find the entire longlist - and learn more about the Women’s Prize - here.