KAMILA SHAMSIE WINS 2018 WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION

19.30, London, 6^th June 2018: British/Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie has won the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction with her seventh novel Home Fire (Bloomsbury Circus).

At an awards ceremony hosted in Bedford Square Gardens, central London – hosted by novelist and Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse – the 2018 Chair of Judges, Sarah Sands presented the author with the £30,000 prize and the ‘Bessie’, a limited edition bronze figurine. Both are anonymously endowed.

Sarah Sands, Chair of Judges, said: “This was a dazzling shortlist, it had depth and richness and variety. We were forcibly struck by the quality of the prose. Each book had its champions. We loved the originality of mermaids and courtesans, we were awed by the lyrical truth of an American road trip which serves as a commentary of the history of race in America, we discussed into the night the fine and dignified treatment of a woman’s domestic abuse, we laughed over a student’s rite of passage and we experienced the truth of losing a parent and loving a child. In the end we chose the book which we felt spoke for our times. Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics. And it sustains mastery of its themes and its form. It is a remarkable book which we passionately recommend.”

The Women’s Prize for Fiction — one of the biggest international celebrations of women’s creativity — is the UK’s only annual book award for fiction celebrating excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world.

The judges for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction are:

Sarah Sands, (Chair), Editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme

Anita Anand, Radio and Television Journalist

Katy Brand, Writer, Comedian and Actor

Catherine Mayer, Journalist, Author and Co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party

Imogen Stubbs, Actress

2018 marks the 23rd year of the Prize. Any woman writing in English – whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter – is eligible.

The 2018 Prize is supported by three partners.  They are:

• Baileys; the world’s bestselling cream liqueur, which held the title sponsorship of the Prize from 2013 – 2017
• Deloitte; a leading professional services firm, providing audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services
• NatWest; one of the UK’s leading personal, private and business banks

Kamila Shamsie has been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize twice previously; in 2015 for A God in Every Stone and in 2009 for Burnt Shadows.

In addition to the Women’s Prize for Fiction winner announcement, aspiring novelist Faith Eckersall was named as the winner of the Women’s Prize/Grazia First Chapter Competition for unpublished writers.
Further information on the winning book and author follows.

For more information or images, please contact Rose Goddard or Amanda Johnson:

E: rose@womensprizeforfiction.co.uk T: 07824 807 789

E: amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com  T: 07715 922 180

Briefing details:

Kamila Shamsie is the author of seven novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and, most recently, A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan’s Academy of Letters. Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2017. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013.

She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.

Home Fire

Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she resumes a dream long deferred – studying in America.  But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream – to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London worlds away from theirs.  As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to – or defy. The fates of these two families are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: what sacrifices will we make in the name of love?