Nigerian writer and doctor Muti’ah Badruddeen is one of six finalists for the prestigious 2025 Discoveries Prize, awarded by the Women’s Prize Trust.

Now in its fifth year, the Discoveries program is a free-to-enter writing initiative aimed at supporting unpublished and unagented women writers across the UK and Ireland who are working on their first adult novel. The prize received over 2,600 entries, with the shortlist selected based on the opening 10,000 words and synopsis of each submitted novel.

Badruddeen is a vocal proponent of fiction that centers Nigerian Muslim women. She was shortlisted for her novel-in-progress, A Bowl of River Water, a “haunting historical novel set in a rural village in colonial Nigeria inspired by the author’s grandmother.”

Muti’ah Badruddeen is the author of two self-published novels: Rekiya & Z, which explores trauma, loss, and Muslim womanhood in Nigeria through the enduring friendship of two women; and Falter, which follows the faith journey of a privileged young Lagos woman questioning her identity and spirituality at the turn of the 21st century.

Chair of the judging panel, author and Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse, praised the shortlist in a press release, calling it “a shortlist of talented future novelists” that demonstrates “the ambition, boldness and confidence of women writers.”

The other shortlisted authors for this year’s prize are Sophie Black (The Pass), Shaiyra Devi (The Persistence of Gravity), Jac Felipez (A Long Ways from Home), Rosie Rowell (Down by the Stryth), and Lauren Van Schaik (Seven Sweet Nothings).

All six shortlisted writers will receive a mentoring session with a Curtis Brown agent, a free writing course with Curtis Brown Creative, and an audio-focused studio session with Audible. One shortlisted author will also be named the Discoveries Scholar and awarded a scholarship for a three-month novel-writing course.

The overall winner—who will be announced on May 29—will be awarded £5,000 and an offer of literary representation from Curtis Brown.