Ilse Schwepcke travel writing prize for women launches at Frankfurt Book Fair

A new travel writing prize for women has launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair today (October 17). The Ilse Schwepcke prize is a new award for the year’s best travel book in English written by a woman, with a prize worth £5,000. The winning author, chosen by a panel of writers and booksellers, will be named at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2025.

Barbara Schwepcke, with her uncle Karl-Burkhard Haus, set up the prize in memory of her mother, Ilse, a "devotee" of travel writing, feminist and founding editor of the Armchair Traveller series produced by Barbara’s company Haus Publishing, based in London. 

The Ilse Schwepcke Prize will also have a German-language sister prize (Der Ilse-Schwepcke-Preis) awarded alongside it for the best travel book by a woman writing in German.

Barbara Schwepcke said: "My mother was passionate about great travel writing and great writing by women. These prizes in her name will celebrate the adventurousness and literary skill of women at a time when women’s rights are under attack in many places around the world. This will be the most generous prize for women travel writers in the world. It’s never been more important to read women’s experiences as travellers and to affirm women’s right to travel near and far.”

The inaugural English-language prize will be judged by: Helena Attlee, travel writer and author of the acclaimed The Land Where Lemons Grow; Arabella Friesen, bookseller at John Sandoe Books; and author and style and travel blogger Stephanie Yeboah.