CWIP Awards: Celebrating Women’s Comedy Writing in 2025

CWIP awards celebrate humorous, intelligent women's writing. Ruth Foster wins Self-Published Novel award. Sara Pascoe wins Jilly Cooper Award. Explores modern themes with wit and warmth. Modern British Novel.

The champion of the Self-Published Unique award, a new CWIP category for 2025 to commemorate the agency of women authors, was A Perfect Year by Ruth Foster. Courts consisted of Lesley Joseph, Nina Wadia and Llewella Gideon. Foster will certainly get a package from hybrid book publisher Atmosphere Press.

“8 years after I founded the prize, I never assumed we would certainly have a hilarious winning unique about a queer Muslim scholastic deradicalising Isis new brides. It genuinely feels like a contender for today’s Modern British Unique. Evidence, if any were needed, that intelligent audacious women writing wins out.”

Revealed at an awards ceremony at the Groucho Club, London on Monday (3rd November), with 150 guests, the prizes “celebrate the absolute ideal in amusing, intelligent writing that is not terrified to deal with the darker side of life in these tough times”, organisers said.

CWIP 2025 Winners Announced

Fittingly Sara Pascoe’s debut novel Weirdo gets the first CWIP Jilly Cooper Award. Natalie Willbe was the champion of the CWIP Unpublished Unique honor, scooping her initial publishing deal with Hera Books. “Her novel Music for the Samosa Generation checks out intergenerational relationships and just how to stabilize love and obligation, with wry, relatable humour and warmth,” organisers claimed. The winner of the Self-Published Novel award, a new CWIP category for 2025 to celebrate the company of females writers, was A Perfect Year by Ruth Foster. Reward founder Helen Lederer said: “What unifies all these novels is that these are endure, modern voices doubting crucial concerns (marital relationship, religious beliefs, sexual desire, ageing, quirkiness) with wit and warmth.

The Honorary Game Changer Honor was approved by Tameka Empson “in recognition of Tameka’s job which rests across all areas of funny input from writing, curating a television collection, comical acting and ‘being herself’ however constantly with wit at the center”, organisers claimed.

Honoring Comedic Talent

Natalie Willbe was the winner of the CWIP Unpublished Unique award, scooping her first publishing deal with Hera Books. “Her novel Songs for the Samosa Generation discovers intergenerational partnerships and exactly how to balance love and responsibility, with wry, relatable humour and heat,” organisers said. The evaluating panel included Janet Ellis, Liz Hoggard, poet Malaika Kegode and Dawn Butler MP.

Unpublished Novel Award

Other runner-up, author Jeananne Craig, won the deal of a position on the on-line MA in Comedy Creating at Falmouth College, which is the initial of its kind in the nation. Set in Belfast and Dublin, Craig’s novel Some Information is an emotional exploration of family members.

The CWIP Recommendation for Comedic Society was granted to Generation X by Dara Lutes, an expedition of broken heart, intergenerational feminism and the unpleasant reality of growing older without maturing, winning an editing and enhancing and layout package from plan publisher, Fuzzy Flamingo.

The runner-up in the Published Unique Award is Holly Gramazio’s Husbands (Chatto & Windus), an astutely observed tackle the commitment-phobic Tinder generation. Gramazio, that previously worked in the video gaming industry for 15 years, utilizes her experience to satirise modern principles of selection.

For the first time, the final evaluating process for the 2025 Published Novel was opened approximately viewers in the form of a new People’s Selection Award. Votes were curated through the CWIP website on a one person-one ballot basis– winning a cash prize from Arthur H Stockwell Limited.

People’s Choice Award

The runner-up of the Self-Published Unique honor was The Stand-Up Mam by Kay Wilson which is “regarding a forgotten mommy that chooses to try stand-up comedy with disorderly but hilarious results in a story packed with a powerful craze”, organisers stated.

British scholastic and previous UN peacebuilding specialist, Younis, named by organisers as “the unanimous winner of the CWIP Released Unique Honor with her amazingly amusing debut Basically (Weidenfeld & Nicolson], was picked by a panel of courts that consisted of Kerry Godliman, Ingrid Oliver and Ranvir Singh. It was also shortlisted for the Female’s Reward.

Joggers up in the Unpublished Novel Award were The Means of Nellie Might by Rachel Sambrooks, which sees a young monk breaking her grandma out of her treatment home– carrying on the style of multi-generational relationships and the worth of older females. Sambrooks wins a put on an MA by Study in Creative Composing or a writing mentorship from the University of Hertfordshire.

Themes and Voices

Reward founder Helen Lederer stated: “What joins all these stories is that these are brave, modern voices doubting vital concerns (marriage, religious beliefs, sexual desire, ageing, quirkiness) with wit and heat. We satisfy mistaken people attempting to do excellent points to hilarious result.

Self-Published Unique classification court and previous CWIP victor Sylvia Saunders commented: “There’s something lively and quite different concerning this layout of letters that operates in the context of a comic book– I winced and chuckled in turn.”

, CWIP has ushered in the CWIP Jilly Cooper Honor. Fittingly Sara Pascoe’s launching unique Weirdo gets the first CWIP Jilly Cooper Honor. A bold and honest look at a young woman stumbling with life, Weirdo combines comedic set items with genuine pathos– even when played for laughs.