Women's Prize for Fiction 1997: Complete list of winners

The 1997 Women’s Prize for Fiction crowned Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels as its winner, marking a watershed moment for a debut that would go on to become a modern classic. Michaels’ lyrical novel, which weaves together the stories of a Holocaust survivor and the young boy who saves him, captured the hearts of the prize’s judges with its poetic prose and profound meditation on memory, loss, and redemption. The recognition was particularly significant for Michaels, who brought both her background as a poet and her deep historical sensibility to bear on a work that defied easy categorization—it was neither strictly literary fiction nor historical fiction, but rather a genre-blending meditation that demanded readers sit with difficult truths and beautiful language in equal measure.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction, established in 1996 to celebrate fiction written by women writers, had already established itself as an influential arbiter of contemporary literature by its second year of operation. The award’s focus on bringing attention to women authors’ work made Michaels’ victory particularly resonant, as Fugitive Pieces might otherwise have been overshadowed by the year’s other significant releases. The 1997 Women’s Prize for Fiction winner represented exactly what the award aimed to do: shine a spotlight on distinctive, ambitious voices that might deserve more recognition in the broader literary landscape.

Below, you’ll find the complete details of this year’s honoree and what made her work stand out from the competition.

Fiction

• Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels