The Women’s Prize Trust – the registered charity building a better future by championing women’s writing – is thrilled to announce this year’s winner of Discoveries, the popular and pioneering writer development programme and prize run in partnership with Audible, Curtis Brown, and the Curtis Brown Creative writing school. The 2026 winner of Discoveries is Ruixi Zhang, who receives £5,000 and an offer of representation from The Curtis Brown Group for her standout novel-in-progress, Confessions of an Alien.
Born in China and spending her childhood in Beijing, Ruixi went on to study at Wellesley College in the US and the University of Oxford before moving to London. Ruixi is the first winner of Discoveries writing in English as her second language. She follows in the footsteps of exophonic Women’s Prize for Fiction winners Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2007) and Yael van der Wouden (2025). Her novel-in-progress is a memorable and vivid literary thriller that explores the power dynamics in interracial marriage and examines an immigrant’s relationship with the English language.
Ruixi Zhang said:
“I am immensely grateful to the Discoveries judges and team, who see something in this dark little story that has, for the past three years, lived in my head and kept me awake at night writing. Crafted in a language that is not mine, at times, it feels alien to me. I also feel indebted to every mentor who has helped me cultivate my intellect and creativity along the way. Winning Discoveries marks for me the beginning of a long and exciting journey. I can’t wait to tell more stories in the years to come!”
Mirha Butt has been named the Discoveries Scholar, winning a free scholarship to attend a three-month Writing Your Novel course with Curtis Brown Creative to develop her ambitious novel-in-progress, Notes From The Valley of Unclaimed Daughters. From Watford and working in London, Mirha is a public policy and research professional who recently graduated from the London School of Economics. Inspired by her grandfather and his commitment to human rights and freedom from occupation, Mirha’s novel-in-progress is told from the perspective of a mother and daughter living in Kashmir during the 1990s insurgency and its aftermath.
Mirha Butt said:
“It feels surreal to have something so personal and quietly important to me recognised in such a huge way! As someone who’s learned writing purely through reading and writing itself, I’m also so excited for the opportunity to further develop my novel through Curtis Brown Creative’s ‘Writing Your Novel’ course. I’m hugely grateful to Discoveries, the team behind it, and the wonderful alumni and fellow longlistees I’ve met along the way.”
Discoveries inspires unagented and unpublished women in the UK and Ireland to write their first novels. Along with the shortlisted writers, both writers will be offered a one-to-one mentoring session with a Curtis Brown Group agent plus a free place on a six-week Curtis Brown Creative course of their choice, as well as an invitation to Audible’s studio to learn more about audiobook writing and production. All shortlisted and longlisted writers from the 2026 cohort will attend a bespoke two-week writing development course designed by Curtis Brown Creative and taught by Laura Barnett.
The 2026 judging panel is chaired by Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, the international bestselling writer and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. She is joined by award-winning and global bestselling author Dorothy Koomson (My Best Friend’s Girl, The Ice Cream Girls and The Woman He Loved Before); peacebuilding practitioner and 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted author Dr Nussaibah Younis (Fundamentally); Curtis Brown literary agent Ciara Finan; and Founder and Managing Director of Curtis Brown Creative, Anna Davis.
Kate Mosse CBE FRSL, writer and chair of judges said:
“It was so hard to choose just one winner, and one scholar, from this year’s excellent shortlist – the future of fiction is in great hands with these six talented writers working on such inspiring novels. But in the end, we were all swept up by the intrigue, the skill and the pace of Confessions of an Alien and couldn’t wait to read more. In Notes From The Valley of Unclaimed Daughters, we hugely admired the author’s ambition and her ability to spin a compelling story out of such complicated history. Congratulations to them both and thank you to my fellow judges for their hard work.”
Anna Davis, Curtis Brown Creative, and Ciara Finan, Curtis Brown, said:
“For all of us on ‘Team Disco’ (the nickname for the core Discoveries team at Curtis Brown and Curtis Brown Creative), the thing we love most about our jobs is the opportunity to champion exciting new writing – and we’re hugely looking forward to working with this year’s talented winner and scholar, Ruixi Zhang and Mirha Butt, along with the rest of the vibrant shortlisted and longlisted writers through mentoring and courses. It’s utterly wonderful to see so many successful debuts emerging from Discoveries – and we warmly encourage more unpublished women to use the programme as motivation to start writing that novel you’ve been meaning to get around to, and then to keep going to the end.”
Claire Shanahan, Executive Director of the Women’s Prize Trust, said:
“Having seen the hard work of so many Discoveries alumni come to fruition this year with their debut novels published – and with more to come – I am reminded of the commitment and persistence so many authors dedicate to their craft, and how our work at the Women’s Prize Trust, in upholding and supporting emerging writers and sharing women’s stories, remains as crucial and as in demand as ever. Congratulations to Ruixi and Mirha, who we look forward to getting to know and welcoming to the Women’s Prize community.”
Since launching in 2020, the Discoveries alumni community has experienced landmark success, achieving an impressive number of deals and publications in the previous two years alone. Between 2024 and mid-2026, six Discoveries authors have published their debut novels, including Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin (2022 Shortlist) and Emma van Straaten (2021 Winner). Eleven further authors are set to publish their debuts between now and 2027, including Niamh Connolly (2024 Winner) / Hodder & Stoughton; Rukky Brume(2021 Longlist) / Merky Books; Tara O’Sullivan (2022 Longlist) / Borough Press; and Rebecca Taylor McKay (2022 Longlist) / Renegade Books. Out of 80 longlisted alumni, 40% (32) authors have agents and 21% (17) have book deals, with many others still working on their novels.
To find out more about more Discoveries and its programme of events and resources for writers, please visit:womensprize.com/discoveries
