Australian author Helen Garner has won the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for her collected diaries, How to End a Story, marking the first time a diary has claimed the prestigious award.
London, 5 November 2025 — In a landmark moment for literary nonfiction, acclaimed Australian writer Helen Garner has been awarded the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for her deeply personal and stylistically daring work, How to End a Story: Collected Diaries. The £50,000 prize was announced at a ceremony held at BMA House in London, with the event live-streamed globally.
Garner’s win is historic: How to End a Story is the first diary collection to ever receive the Baillie Gifford Prize in its 26-year history"). Spanning two decades of Garner’s life—from the publication of her debut novel in the 1970s to the collapse of her marriage in the 1990s—the book offers an unflinching, intimate portrait of a writer navigating love, motherhood, and creative ambition.
Chair of judges Robbie Millen described the book as “remarkable” and “addictive,” praising Garner’s “reckless candor” and “steel-sharp wit.” He added, “Garner takes the diary form, mixing the intimate, the intellectual, and the everyday, to new heights. Every page has a surprising, sharp or amusing thought”.
In her acceptance speech, streamed from her home in Melbourne, Garner expressed astonishment at the recognition: “I never dreamt my book would win a prize of any kind because it seemed to fall between the cracks of the types of books people consider prizeworthy”.
The win marks Garner’s first major UK literary prize, adding to her distinguished career that includes the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize and the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.
How to End a Story has garnered praise not only for its literary merit but also for its cultural significance. Garner’s candid reflections challenge the marginalization of diary writing—particularly by women—in the literary canon. “Diaries tend to be given short shrift,” she told Sky News, “but they are often the most honest and revealing form of writing we have”.
With this win, Garner joins the ranks of nonfiction luminaries and redefines what prizeworthy literature can be. Her diaries, now compared to those of Virginia Woolf, are poised to become a touchstone for readers and writers alike.
About the Author
Discover more from Geek Digest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
