Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

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Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast

Women’s Prize Podcast/ Bird Lime Media

Arts

Frequency: 1 episode/15d. Total Eps: 178

The podcast that asks women with lives as inspiring as any fiction, to share the five books by women that have shaped them. Join Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, and her inspirational guests as they celebrate the best books written by women, sharing their creativity, voices, and perspectives. The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the biggest celebration of women's creativity in the world and has been running for over 30 years. Sit back and enjoy.

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

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Spotify

🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
08/10/2025
#50
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
07/10/2025
#46
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
06/10/2025
#45
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
05/10/2025
#44
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
04/10/2025
#44
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
03/10/2025
#45
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
02/10/2025
#44
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
01/10/2025
#43
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - arts
30/09/2025
#49
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http://bookshop.org
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http://Bookshop.org
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https://uk.bookshop.org/books/empress-aniya/9781913311100
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http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/
5 shares
http://seriousreaders.com/bookshelfie
4 shares
http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk
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Score global : 57%

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How Twilight Influenced Maisie Peters’ Music

Season 9 · Episode 23

Tuesday, November 3, 2026 • Duration 54:32

Chart-topping music artist Maisie Peters discusses her first love - books - and how they have shaped her songwriting, including the most important love story she’s ever known, Twilight’s Bella and Edward.

Maisie is an award-winning singer-songwriter, whose albums The Good Witch and latest release Florescence both reached No 1 in the UK charts. Starting as a teenage busker in Brighton, she released her debut studio album, You Signed Up For This, in 2021 which catalogued the highs and lows of early adult life. Maisie made her debut at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry in June, and will be playing a headline show at The O2 in May 2027, which no doubt will be watched by her loyal fandom “The Daisies”. This tightly knit, committed group of young women has fallen in love with Maisie’s catchy and emotionally honest indie-pop sound.

Maisie’s book choices are:

11:12 Twilight by Stephanie Myer
20:26 Famesick by Lena Dunham
29:10 Heartburn by Nora Ephron
37:22 Babel by R. F. Kuang
44:19 Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Every week on Bookshelfie, Vick Hope is joined by inspirational women to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction, the greatest celebration of female creativity in the world, is run by the Women’s Prize Trust, the charity building a better future by championing women’s writing.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

The views and opinions expressed by guests on this podcast are their own and are not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Women’s Prize Trust

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Meera Syal on How Books Have Helped Her Understand Herself

Season 9 · Episode 22

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 • Duration 52:01

In this deeply personal conversation, comedian and writer Meera Syal discusses how seeing herself in books helped her make sense of her own experience, the weight of intergenerational trauma and how humour saved her life.

Meera is one Britain’s best-loved comedy legends. She grew up in the small mining village of Essington in Staffordshire, where her Indian Punjabi parents settled after moving from New Delhi. Her early life there, as the only Asian family, later served as inspiration for her semi-autobiographical novel, Anita and Me, which was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 1997. Meera gained widespread recognition for her work in the late 1990s as a writer and performer in the multi-award-winning, iconic BBC comedy sketch show Goodness Gracious Me and for portraying the character Ummi in the International Emmy-award-winning TV series The Kumars at No. 42. In 2023, she was awarded the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship and last month saw the publication of her memoir, Vigilauntie.

7:32 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
17:14 Finding A Voice: Asian Women in Britain by Amrit Wilson
26:17 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
34:11 Beloved by Toni Morrison
43:50 I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections by Nora Ephron

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

The Books anaiis LOVES - Which Have Taught Her to Love

Season 9 · Episode 21

Tuesday, October 20, 2026 • Duration 49:34

Artist and performer anaiis explains how books influence her songwriting, the impact motherhood has had on her creative practice and why bell hooks has reframed her understanding of love.

Born in Toulouse, France, anaiis grew up on the move. She was raised between Dakar, Dublin, and California, eventually settling in London where she lives now. Influenced by the work of Black thinkers and artists like Ella Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, bell hooks, Alice Walker and more, anaiis makes lush, genre-fluid music that explores themes like belonging, connection and motherhood. In 2018 she released her debut single, ‘Nina’, and since then her career has soared, seeing her release multiple albums, and share a stage with the likes of Erykah Badu and Daniel Caesar. Last year she released the album Devotion and the Black Divine to critical acclaim, and this summer she announced a worldwide tour and put out two singles: ‘Sunshine’ and ‘P4P’, each representing joy and rage respectively, and marking a continuation of her creative journey.

anaiis’ book choices are:
07:39 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
14:49 Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
21:36 Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
30:40 All About Love by bell hooks
38:58 Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Rebecca F. Kuang on the Power of Female Jealousy and How Living With Grief Has Inspired Her Latest Book

Season 9 · Episode 20

Tuesday, October 13, 2026 • Duration 01:00:30

Yellowface author Rebecca F. Kuang joins Vick in the Bookshelfie studio to discuss her five favourite books by women, why Sylvia Plath’s diaries made her rethink female jealousy, and how losing her grandfather served as inspiration for her latest novel, Taipei Story.

A trailblazing talent whose literary career has unfolded at an extraordinary pace, Rebecca is the #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of Katabasis, Babel and global phenomenon Yellowface. She has won multiple awards including Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards – twice! A Marshall Scholar, she has a masters in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and another in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature. Her new novel, Taipei Story, a profoundly moving coming-of-age story exploring first love, grief and cultural belonging, is out now.

Rebecca’s book choices are:
12:45 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
20:19 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
30:27 The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung
42:15 Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
50:11 Possession by A.S. Byatt

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Tayari Jones on Finding Her Voice, Toni Morrison & the Power of Storytelling

Season 9 · Episode 19

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 • Duration 45:19

A double bill for Toni Morrison in bestselling author Tayari Jones’ book picks – she explains why she’s her favourite author; the need for deep, ferocious crying when reading; and her unexpected guilty pleasure – a good old murder mystery.

Tayari is the internationally bestselling author of five novels, including An American Marriage, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019. It was also an Oprah’s Book Club selection, was included on Barack Obama’s summer reading list and has been published in two dozen countries, selling over 350,000 copies in the UK alone.

Tayari was born and lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is currently professor of Creative Writing at Emory University, and an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Her most recent novel, Kin, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and has been named a Best Book of the Year so Far. It’s another Oprah Book Club Selection; Oprah called it, “a masterpiece of a novel that will live with you long after you turn the last page.”

Tayari Jones is a mentor for Originators 2027 – the Women’s Prize Trust’s mentorship and development program, dedicated to supporting emerging women fiction writers from across the United States, presented by CHANEL. Find out more here.

Tayari’s book choices are:
09:56 Jazz by Toni Morrison
17:14 Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
24:13 Faithful Place by Tana French
29:53 The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
36:33 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Maria Semple on writing strong women and embracing vulnerability in books

Season 9 · Episode 18

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 • Duration 51:08

In this funny and uplifting conversation, novelist and screenwriter Maria Semple discusses her desire to re-write women in fiction, why she feels “naked” when writing books and her fascination with stoicism.

Maria used to work in television, producing and writing for sitcoms and comedy specials such as Arrested Development, The George Carlin Show and Mad About You, which earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination. Maria’s novels – Today Will Be Different, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, and This One Is Mine – have been translated into forty languages, and Where'd You Go, Bernadette has sold over 200 thousand copies in the UK alone and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2013. Go Gentle, her most recent novel, is out now.

Maria’s book choices are:
11:02 Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido
18:16 The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
24:40 The Art Of Living by Epictetus
32:29 Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
38:51 Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

How a “Dating Odyssey” Inspired Louise O’Neill

Season 9 · Episode 17

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 • Duration 55:21

Bestselling author Lousie O’Neill explains why she decided to set up daily dates around the world, how it inspired her new memoir and her journey to acceptance around addiction.

*Listener/viewer note - this episode contains reference to eating disorders and disordered eating*

Louise grew up in Clonakilty in the heart of the rugged coastline of West Cork in Ireland. After stepping away from a career in the fashion industry, she returned home to dedicate her time to writing her first novel, Only Ever Yours, a dystopian feminist story which went on to win The Bookseller‘s inaugural YA Book Prize in 2015. This success was quickly cemented following the release of her second critically acclaimed YA novel, Asking For It, which was voted Book of the Year at the Irish Books Awards the very same year, and spent 52 consecutive weeks in the Irish top 10 bestseller list. In the decade that followed she’s written three novels for adults and a YA feminist re-imagining of The Little Mermaid, and has not one but two more titles being published this year. Her latest novel, Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone? came out in April, and her first memoir, A Bigger Life, is published this month by HQ.

Louise’s book choices are:
12:43 How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned from Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day
18:28 Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
25:30 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
35:14 The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
42:39 The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Diana Reid on the new Sense and Sensibility adaptation and why Jane Austen is the opposite of cosy fiction

Season 9 · Episode 16

Tuesday, September 15, 2026 • Duration 46:53

Diana Reid, the writer behind the new Sense and Sensibility adaption, explains to Vick how re-reading Austen taught her something unexpected and why she still cringes at the thought of herself as a writer.

Diana is a screenwriter and the bestselling author of the novels Love & Virtue, Seeing Other People, and Signs of Damage. Her debut Love & Virtue won several prizes including the ABIA Book of the Year Award. She was also named Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelist in 2022. Most recently, she’s written a new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense & Sensibility for Working Title and Universal Pictures, set for release in cinemas on 25 September starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles as the Dashwood sisters.
Diana’s book choices are:
06:00 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
16:23 The Secret History by Donna Tartt
23:51 Middlemarch by George Eliot
31:35 The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
27:11 On Beauty by Zadie Smith

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

Katherine Rundell brings Vick to tears

Season 9 · Episode 15

Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Duration 48:10

In a first for Bookshelfie, Vick is brought to tears by bestselling author Katherine Rundell’s rousing speech on the importance of teaching children courage and not breaking faith with the beauty and love of the world.

Katherine’s novels for children have won the Waterstones Book of the Year, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, among many others. In 2024, she was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year, and Impossible Creatures won the Children’s Fiction Book of the Year. She is a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and her books for adults include Super-Infinite, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize. The third installment of her Impossible Creatures series The Neverfear is out now with Bloomsbury.

Katherine’s book choices are:

06:02 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
15:00 Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido
21:18 Emma by Jane Austen
30:09 A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
37:50 Priestdaddy: A Memoir by Patricia Lockwood

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

Kathryn Stockett at Women’s Prize LIVE

Season 9 · Episode 14

Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 49:55

Recorded Live at Women’s Prize Live, global bestselling writer Kathryn Stockett talks to Vick about the enduring allure of Mississippi, the book that gave her “electricity in my ass” and her long awaited second novel, 17 years in the making, The Calamity Club.

Kathryn was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Her first novel, The Help, which was first published in the US back in 2009 has sold over 1 million copies in the UK and 15 million copies worldwide.

Kathryn’s book choices are:
09:58 The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty
17:32 The Secret History by Donna Tartt
24:19 Animal by Lisa Taddeo
29:49 The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
38:59 The Colour Purple by Alice Walker

You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org – every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.

Don’t want to miss the rest of season nine? Follow or subscribe now!

This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.

Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Bookshop49

Other36

The Guardian2

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Bookshop49

Other36

The Guardian2

Apple Podcasts

Spotify