The Ilse Schwepcke Prize — the world’s most valuable award for travel writing by women — was created to celebrate the legacy of Ilse Schwepcke, a publisher who championed stories of exploration and discovery. Presented each year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the prize honours outstanding English- and German-language travel books by women. We sat down with Dr Barbara Schwepcke to talk about how the prize came to be, what it stands for, and the importance of women’s perspectives on travel.
Jump to the 2025 winners!
These prizes in my mother’s name will celebrate the adventurousness, perception and literary skill of women at a time when women’s rights are under attack in many places around 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.
Barbara Schwepcke, prize co-founder
What inspired you to create a travel writing prize specifically for women, and what do you hope it will achieve?
When my mother died two years ago, one of her authors described her role as his publisher as follows: ‘In an age when so many travel books seem like checklists for pointless selfies, Ilse’s commissions resolutely reflected a love of travel itself, a fascination with the remote and the strange, a refusal to pander to the mainstream. So few modern tourists “travel” at all, but Ilse’s books invited us all to voyage far beyond the sunset, even if we never leave our armchairs.’ I wanted to commemorate and celebrate this last chapter in her life. That’s why I created the Ilse Schwepcke Prize, a travel writing prize with a difference, the difference being that it was for women. Why? Because the one regret my mother had in almost two decades of curating The Armchair Traveller was that she had very few female authors on her list. When she met Helena Attlee at a travel award ceremony, when Helena’s book The Land Where Lemons Grow had just won the prize and my mother’s author had “only” been shortlisted, Mami cheerfully congratulated her with the words: ‘I wish I had published your book!’ So I was delighted when Helena joined the English-language jury of the inaugural Ilse Schwepcke Prize, with which we hope to shine a light on the best travel writing by a woman in the English each year. Honouring my mother’s roots in both Germany and the UK, a sister prize will also be presented each year to a woman writer of the best travel book in German.
Can you tell us a little about how the prize works?
Each year on the 1st of January, my mother’s birthday, the Society of Authors, which administers the prize in the UK, and Kirchner Kommunikation in Berlin, invite publishers to submit new travel writing by women, which they have published in the past year. Deadline for these submissions is the end of March. A jury of three women on both sides of the language divide – hopefully always a writer, a bookseller and a journalist or social media content creator – read all the submissions and select a shortlist and a winner.
In this, the prize’s inaugural year, I was so impressed by the number and quality of the submissions: 30 books on the English-language side and 20 on the German. Arabella von Friesen, the bookseller on the UK jury, invited us to celebrate the two shortlists at her wonderful John Sandoe book shop. And when Viv Groskop, one of the shortlisted authors, was interviewed by the BBC she highlighted the fact that this prize had reaffirmed her belief that female travel writing was alive and kicking. Hurrah!
You have just awarded unveiled the winners of the 2025 Ilse Schwepcke Prize at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Did any surprising similarities or differences strike you between the German and English language short lists?
We were fortunate that the Kurt Wolff Stiftung let us use the Leseinsel der unabhaengigen Verlage for the award ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Because that highlighted the similarities between the German and the English language short lists: all the books that made it onto those lists were published by independent publishers – another hurrah from me! And I promise you that my uncle and I as founders of the prize did not have any influence on the juries’ choices. We were nevertheless thrilled by them and so impressed by the winners.
Differences? Yes, there were differences, which I had suspected there would be. I have been a publisher in the UK for over twenty years now and buy translation licenses of German language books as well as try and mostly fail to sell them in the other direction: the genre of travel writing is well-known in the UK but not as well established in German language market. But hopefully this will change with this prize.
How can women’s perspectives contribute to diversifying the travel writing landscape, both culturally and geographically?
In her acceptance speech Millay Hyatt, who won the inaugural Ilse-Schwepcke-Preis for her book Nachtzugtage (how wonderful to choose a made-up composite word, so typical for the German language, as the title!), pointed to the women’s perspective in travel writing as setting it apart from other travelogues: when she met two veiled ladies on one of her trips on the night train, they were amazed not only that she was travelling alone, but also that her ex-husband was looking after their child while she was away.
Ursula Martin concurred: when she accepted the invitation of kind strangers to stay in their house overnight, these generous female hosts asked her over dinner whether she was not afraid to walk through the woods – they had never even left their village, let alone walked through a country whose language you don’t speak. They were shocked to hear that Ursula had not only walked through these woods near their village but had camped in them. ‘Weren’t you afraid of the bears?’ ‘No, not them,’ Ursula said, having met two, of the animal sort that is, on her way. Her book One Woman Walks Europe (published by the Honno Welsh Women’s Press) deserved to win the English-language prize for sheer guts and determination alone!
What role do you think prizes like The Ilse Schwepcke Prize can play in making the publishing world more inclusive for women travel writers?
Ursula Martin said: ‘Both my walking and book writing have been deeply solitary journeys. To bring a book in from the creative wilderness and have it recognised by women committed to supporting other women is a great honour and wonderful affirmation of all the effort. I hope the Ilse Schwepcke Prize continues to highlight the achievements of many intrepid women in future, both amplifying unheard voices and showing us more of what women are capable of.’
Millay Hyatt sagte: „Es ist mir eine große Ehre, mit dem erstmals verliehenen Ilse-Schwepcke-Preis für mein Buch Nachtzugtage ausgezeichnet zu werden. Ich freue mich schon auf die in den kommenden Jahren nominierten Autorinnen und ihre Bücher. Es kann nie genug schöne Reiseliteratur von Frauen geben – und dieser Preis trägt dazu bei, dass diese gefördert wird. Danke!” [Millay Hyatt said: “It is a great honor for me to receive the first-ever Ilse Schwepcke Prize for my book Nachtzugtage. I’m already looking forward to the authors and their books that will be nominated in the coming years. There can never be enough beautiful travel literature by women – and this prize helps to promote it. Thank you!”]
Learn more:
The 2025 winning titles!
The English language winning title is Ursula Martin’s One Woman Walks Europe (Honno Welsh Women’s Press)
The German language winning title is Millay Hyatt’s Nachtzugtage (Friedenauer Presse)
Press release and informational materials
The Isle Schwepke Prize website – including information on entering the prize, as well as details of the books shortlisted in 2025
