7 June 2017
The Power by Naomi Alderman has been named as the winner of the £30,000 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction at an awards ceremony at Royal Festival Hall this evening.
The Power, a feminist science fiction novel, follows four characters navigating a changed world in which all women have developed the power to electrocute people at will. Alderman, who won an Orange Award for New Writers in 2006 for her debut novel Disobedience, was presented with the £30,000 prize and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine, by 2017 Chair of Judges, Tessa Ross.
The five other shortlisted authors were:
- Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀̀ (Canongate)
- The Dark Circle by Linda Grant (Virago)
- The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan (4th Estate)
- First Love by Gwendoline Riley (Granta)
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien (Granta)
The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction is the UK’s only annual book award for fiction celebrating excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. 2017 marks the 22nd year of the Prize.
This year’s judges were Tessa Ross (Chair), Sam Baker, Katie Derham, Aminatta Forna and Sara Pascoe.
Read the full details on the Baileys website.