The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson, published by Cassava Republic Press, shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Nigerian founded publishing house, Cassava Republic Press makes the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist for the first time in the prize’s history. This marks a significant moment not only for the author, but for independent African publishing on the global stage.
Cassava Republic Press is proud to announce that The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson has been shortlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. This is a moment that belongs to more than one book, and more than one publisher. This is the first time; an African and Black women-owned small press have ever reached this shortlist in the prize’s thirty-year history. Today, that changes.
Founded in Abuja, Nigeria in 2006, Cassava Republic Press has spent nearly two decades publishing bold, original writing from Africa and the diaspora. Marcia Hutchinson published her debut novel at sixty. Before The Mercy Step found its home at Cassava Republic, more than fifty publishers had passed on it. Today it is shortlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious literary prizes.
Set in 1960s Bradford, the novel follows Mercy, the youngest child of a Windrush-generation Jamaican family, navigating a household shaped by her father’s violence, her mother’s fierce faith, and the unbreakable love between siblings. Sharply observed, deeply affecting, and told through a child’s unflinching voice, it is a novel about silence, resilience, and the quiet acts of defiance that shape a life.
Hutchinson is a British-Jamaican lawyer, community activist, and MBE recipient. This is her debut novel.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
“ A moving and perfectly observed slice of Black British life with the hallmarks of a modern classic.” – Paterson Joseph, actor and author
“A brilliant debut with a child protagonist impossible to look away from.” – Irenosen Okojie, author
“Dark and humorous storytelling that passionately captures the unique realities of the northern Black experience, told with imaginative power from a child’s vantage point.” – The Observer
PUBLISHER STATEMENT
“We are honoured, and we are proud. This is what independent, Black-owned publishing is for — not as a corrective to the mainstream, but as a home. A place where a writer can debut at sixty. Where a story rooted in Black British life can be treated with the full literary ambition it deserves. We started in Abuja twenty years ago with passion and an unshakeable belief that African storytelling belonged to the world. Today, the world agrees.” — Bibi Bakare- Yusuf, Founder and Publishing Director, Cassava Republic Press
This recognition affirms what Cassava Republic has always known: that Black stories, complex, tender, and unflinching belong at the centre of global literary culture, not at its margins.
The winner of the £30,000 Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced on 11 June 2026 in London. The paperback edition of The Mercy Step is available from 30 April 2026.
