World Book Day 2025 | Notable women writers in the past year

On World Book Day, 2025, we take a look at women authors who have made a mark this past year

Each year, April 23 is celebrated as World Book and Copyright Day. Established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a way to celebrate the power of books, it was first celebrated in 1995. A symbolic day in world literature, April 23 marks the death anniversary of several beloved authors, including William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garciloso de la Vega.

As part of the celebration, a World Book Capital is selected by UNESCO and international organizations representing publishers, booksellers and libraries— the three major sectors of the book industry. This year it is Rio De Janeiro, taking over from Strasbourg in 2024.

Of course, no book industry would exist or be sustained without authors, the creatives at the base of it all. Initiatives have also sought to expand audience access to writers from minority communities, across caste and gender lines. As readers revel in their favourite books and sort through new treasures, we take a look at some notable women authors who have taken home the top honours of the writing world over the past year.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 was awarded to South Korean writer Han Kang, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Ms. Kang was born in Gwangju, South Korea, before moving to Seoul at the age of nine. The daughter of a novelist, she is also interested in art and music. She began her writing journey with poetry in 1993, following up with prose in 1995. Some of her works include Your Cold Hands (2002), The Wind Blows, Go (2010), The Vegetarian (2015), Human Acts (2016) and Greek Lessons (2023). Her international breakthrough came with The Vegetarian, a three-part work that traces what happens after its female protagonist embraces vegetarianism, a seemingly innocuous act that spurs a series of dark consequences. 2016’s Human Acts, meanwhile, has as its backdrop the 1980 uprisings in Gwanju, where hundreds of civilians were murdered by the South Korean military.

The Nobel Prize website highlights that Ms. Kang has a “unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead.” In her work, Han Kang combines explorations of historical trauma and the fragile nature of human life, it notes, calling her an innovator in contemporary prose, with a poetic and experimental style.

British author Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for fiction on November 12, 2024 with Orbital— a short novel set aboard the International Space Station. The last time a British author won was in 2020, while the last time a woman won the prize was in 2019. She was one of five women on the 2024 shortlist— the largest ever in the prize’s 55-year history.