Women's Prize for Fiction: Barbara Kingsolver wins for Demon Copperhead

Barbara Kingsolver with her Women's Prize for Fiction trophyPA Media
By Paul Glynn
Entertainment reporter

This year's Women's Prize for Fiction has gone to Barbara Kingsolver for Demon Copperhead, a modern reimagining of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield.

Kingsolver, who also won in 2010 for The Lacuna, is the first author to take the prize twice.

She said Dickens wrote his 1850 novel "to protest the ravages of poverty on the children of his time", adding: "I wrote mine for the same reason."

The judges called it "a towering, deeply powerful and significant book".

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Relocating the story from Victorian England to the modern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Demon Copperhead tells the story of a boy born in a trailer park who navigates foster care, labour exploitation, addiction, love and loss.

Former BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin, who chaired the Women's Prize judges, said it was "a unanimous decision".

'At the top of her game'

The book serves as "an exposé of modern America, its opioid crisis and the detrimental treatment of deprived and maligned [rural] communities", Minchin said.

"Brilliant and visceral, it is storytelling by an author at the top of her game. We were all deeply moved by Demon, his gentle optimism, resilience and determination despite everything being set against him."

Kingsolver explained that it was "challenging and also fun to transpose Victorian characters and situations to my own place and time" for her 10th novel.

Minchin presented the US author with the £30,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday. Demon Copperhead also won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction earlier this year.

Now in its 28th year, the Women's Prize honours "outstanding, ambitious, original fiction" written in English by female writers from around the world.

Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 shortlist

  • Winner: Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

  • Jacqueline Crooks, Fire Rush

  • Louise Kennedy, Trespasses

  • Priscilla Morris, Black Butterflies

  • Maggie O'Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

  • Laline Paull, Pod

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