Women's Prize for Fiction 2020: Complete list of winners

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet claimed the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, cementing what many readers already knew: that O’Farrell had crafted something genuinely extraordinary. The novel, a reimagining of the life surrounding Shakespeare’s son and the plague-stricken summer of 1596, beat out an impressive field of contenders to win one of the literary world’s most prestigious honors for women writers. It’s the kind of win that feels both surprising and inevitable—a sweeping historical novel that manages to be both intellectually ambitious and deeply human, centered on a tragedy that Shakespeare himself never fully explained.

The Women’s Prize for Fiction, now in its 28th year, has long championed excellent writing by women authors who might otherwise be overshadowed in the broader literary conversation. O’Farrell’s win is particularly resonant because Hamnet represents the kind of ambitious, complex narrative that demonstrates exactly why this prize remains essential. The novel doesn’t just tell a story about Shakespeare’s family; it interrogates memory, grief, and the ways we construct meaning from loss—themes that resonate far beyond the Elizabethan setting.

Here are the complete details of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction winner:

Fiction

• Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell