Women's Prize for Fiction 2015: Complete list of winners

The 2015 Women’s Prize for Fiction crowned Ali Smith’s inventive novel How to Be Both as its winner, cementing what many readers and critics already suspected—that Smith had created something genuinely original. The award, established in 1996 and originally known as the Orange Prize, celebrates outstanding fiction written by women and has become one of the most prestigious honors in the literary world. Smith’s victory was particularly striking because How to Be Both defies easy categorization, weaving together art history, contemporary narrative, and formal experimentation in ways that might have seemed commercially risky just years before.

What makes Smith’s win especially noteworthy is how the Women’s Prize has continued to champion ambitious, intellectually challenging work that pushes the boundaries of what fiction can do. How to Be Both opens with the story of a 15th-century Italian Renaissance painter, then shifts to a modern-day narrative about a teenager navigating grief and identity—the book literally appears in two different versions depending on which half you read first. This structural playfulness, combined with Smith’s luminous prose, represented exactly the kind of innovative storytelling the Women’s Prize for Fiction has consistently recognized and elevated since its inception. The award has long served as both a commercial boost and a critical endorsement, and Smith’s selection demonstrated the prize’s commitment to literary risk-taking.

Here are the full details of the 2015 Women’s Prize for Fiction winner:

Fiction

• How to Be Both by Ali Smith