Musician Neneh Cherry and medic Rachel Clarke are among finalists for a major nonfiction prize

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

LONDON (AP) — A moving memoir by Swedish singer Neneh Cherry and the gripping story of a heart transplant by British doctor Rachel Clarke are among finalists for the Women’s Prize for Nonfiction, set up to help fix the gender imbalance in nonfiction publishing.

Cherry’s “A Thousand Threads” and Clarke’s “The Story of a Heart” are on a six-book shortlist for the 30,000 pound ($39,000) prize.

The other contenders include two books about nature and the environment: “Raising Hare” by British writer Chloe Dalton, and “What the Wild Sea Can Be” by U.K. biologist Helen Scales.

Also on the list are “Agent Zo,” British historian Clare Mulley’s biography of a World War II resistance fighter, and China-born British lawmaker Yuan Yang’s “Private Revolutions,” which explores the lives of young women in modern-day China.

British journalist Kavita Puri, who is chairing the panel of judges, said the “eclectic” list includes “narratives that honor the natural world and its bond with humanity, meticulously researched stories of women challenging power and books that illuminate complex subjects with authority, nuance and originality.”

The award is a sister to the 30-year-old Women’s Prize for Fiction and is open to female English-language writers from any country in any nonfiction genre. It was established last year in response to statistics showing men in the U.K. buy more nonfiction than women — and write more prize-winning nonfiction books.

The company Nielsen Book Research found in 2019 that while women bought 59% of all the books sold in the U.K., men accounted for just over half of adult nonfiction purchases.

The inaugural winner was Canadian author-activist Naomi Klein for “Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World.”

Winners of both nonfiction and fiction prizes will be announced June 12 at a ceremony in London.