Rozie Kelly shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026
Posted on April 22, 2026
Rozie Kelly has been shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her debut novel, Kingfisher.
Rozie Kelly said ‘I never imagined I would make it onto the shortlist, so I am floating on a cloud of disbelief, punctuated by joy. How wonderful to be included in conversation with all these brilliant women.’
Saraband Publisher Sara Hunt said, ‘What a fantastic achievement for Rozie to be shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for her debut novel! It’s richly deserved: Kingfisher is beautiful, unique, full of tenderness, conflicting emotions and surprises. We’re thrilled to see her talent recognised.’
Charlotte Seymour, Rozie’s agent, said ‘I am delighted to see Rozie’s extraordinary debut – a highly original, tender and funny exploration of power dynamics – on the shortlist.’
Published in April 2025 by independent publisher Saraband after winning the NorthBound Book Award the year before, Kingfisher has put Rozie Kelly on the map as a remarkable new talent. The Telegraph’s reviewer said “Kelly writes the messiness of power dynamics well”, whilst Marie Claire chose it as an editor’s pick: “A tenderly written meditation on art, love and life.” In The Guardian, Derek Owusu called it “a gentle and compassionate novel that explores the nuances of queer love and friendship.”
A creative writing academic falls under the spell of his colleague, a poet whose life seems to shimmer with a freedom he cannot reach. At home, there is Michael: beautiful, steady, safe. But the poet is something else entirely—she is restless, luminous, untouchable.
As his fixation deepens, the boundaries between admiration, desire and possession begin to blur. The poet, his Kingfisher, draws him further from the life he knows, into a world shaped by art, longing and illusion. Then illness arrives, closing in on them all, and the tightrope he’s been walking starts to sway.
Kingfisher is a beautifully crafted novel of queer desire and ambition, grief and creativity, and the fine lines between intimacy and obsession.
The winner will be announced on 11 June 2026. For further information, visit: www.womensprize.com
Rozie Kelly is a novelist based in West Yorkshire. After reading English Literature and Creative Writing she moved to Hebden Bridge, where she works for the Arvon Foundation, hosting creative writing courses. She was shortlisted for the PFD Queer Fiction Prize 2023 and was one of the eight participants in the inaugural Prototype Development Programme 2024. She won the 2024 NorthBound Book Award for Kingfisher, her debut novel.
Author photo credit: Harvey Williams-Fairley.
