Marcia Hutchinson: The Mercy Step

Lily King: Heart The Lover

Hello and welcome to a very special mini series here on the Inklings Book Club podcast where we’ll be meeting each of the six shortlisted authors for the Women’s Prize for Fiction!  The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most successful, influential and popular literary prizes in the world, championing and amplifying women’s voices and nurturing a global community of readers. The Prize was established in 1996 to highlight and remedy the imbalance in coverage, respect and reverence given to women writers versus their male peers, creating a platform for exceptional writing by women to shine. The Prize is awarded annually to the author of the best full-length novel of the year written in English and published in the UK. The winner receives £30,000, anonymously endowed, and the ‘Bessie’, a bronze statuette created by the artist Grizel Niven. Today we’re meeting, Lily King, author of Euphoria, The English Teacher, Writers & Lovers, and Heart The Lover, among others. Heart the Lover is her sixth novel, both a prequel and a sequel to the wildly successful Writers & Lovers – she’s the patron saint of love triangles. Even Pythagorus didn’t explore triangles as much as Lily King. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Virginia Evans: The Correspondent

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Addie E Citchens: Dominion

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Marcia Hutchinson: The Mercy Step

Welcome back to our Women's Prize 2026 spotlight series. Today we’re joined by Marcia Hutchinson, whose debut novel The Mercy Step is shortlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize and just won the Discovery Prize at the British Book Awards! Following the life of a child from the womb to age eleven, Marcia Hutchinson crafts a sharply-witted and tender portrait of a young girl’s quiet rebellion in 1960s Bradford. Marcia also founded Primary Colours, a multicultural educational publishing and training company based in Huddersfield, who helped create resources on cultural education, for example celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Empire Windrush arriving in the UK.  Marcia was awarded an MBE in the Queens Birthday Honours list in 2010 for services to cultural diversity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]

Rozie Kelly: Kingfisher

Welcome to our special Inklings Book Club series spotlighting each of the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlisted authors. First up, we’re meeting Rozie Kelly, author of Kingfisher. This is her debut novel, about an academic married to a man who becomes infatuated with a female poet. Kelly finds beauty in the messiness of being human in this meditation on grief, power, desire, our search for identity, how we love and the consequences when we fall short. Rozie Kelly was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction Prize 2023 and was one of the eight participants in the inaugural Prototype Development Programme 2024. Her debut novel Kingfisher won the NorthBound Book Award before being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices [https://megaphone.fm/adchoices]