London, Jul 28 (PTI) British authors dominate this year’s Booker Prize longlist released on Tuesday and made up of 13 worldwide books written in English, a selection that “rewards risk” in great fiction writing.
Indian authors are conspicuous by their absence in the so-called “Booker Dozen” this year, which includes books by past winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart in the running alongside previously shortlisted Elizabeth Strout and three debut novelists.
The 55-year-old coveted literary prize worth 50,000 pounds is designed to reward and celebrate world-class writing talent.
“The 2026 longlist rewards risk: it is full of genuinely original work, and has human fingerprints all over it,” said Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation.
“Whether working in a traditional form or stretching its possibilities, these writers can take you to the edge of a world or a thought or a feeling. There are books here that are funny, books that are pacey, books that are bold, books that will move you to tears,” she said.
‘The Shadow of the Object’ by Mexican-British author Chloe Aridjis, ‘The End of Everything’ by M John Harrison, ‘Black Bag’ by Luke Kennard, ‘May We Feed the King’ by Rebecca Perry, ‘The Palm House’ by Gwendoline Riley and ‘The Vivisectors’ by Missouri Williams make up the UK authors in the 2026 longlist.
Americans Emma Cline for ‘Switzy’, Makenna Goodman for ‘Helen of Nowhere’, Elizabeth Strout for ‘The Things We Never Say’ are in contention alongside Scottish-American author Douglas Stuart’s ‘John of John’ and Turkish-American Kenan Orhan’s ‘The Renovation’.
Jamaican Marlon James is longlisted for ‘The Disappearers’ and Irish author Djamel White is in the running for ‘All Them Dogs’.
“It’s been an extraordinary seven months. The five Booker judges have each read 163 books, discussed and debated them, and sometimes re-read them, to whittle them down to a longlist of just 13,” said celebrated classicist and writer Mary Beard, who chairs the Booker Prize 2026 judging panel.
“Great books have never been written to a single formula. We are confident that our longlist of books has something for everyone. There’s the funny and the unsettling (and in some cases the funny and unsettling); there’s dystopian fantasy and domestic drama; there’s the gritty and the magically mysterious; there are some that will please and some that may shock.
“But there’s one thing they all share. Every writer on our longlist brilliantly musters the power of words on the page to take the reader to new places, to see old places from new angles, to change minds,” she said.
The longlist traverses through a hospital in Mexico City to the Kent seaside in a post-apocalyptic Britain to an assisted suicide clinic in Zurich; from the barren hillsides of the Outer Hebrides to the criminal badlands of West Dublin; from Kingston, Jamaica, in the late 1980s to coastal Massachusetts in the run up to the 2024 US election; from an unnamed medieval court to a prison cell that defies explanation.
The longlisted books are also said to be tonally diverse, filled with humour and heartbreak, satire and surreality.
This year’s selection, made up of works of fiction written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between October 2025 and September 2026, will now be whittled down to a shortlist of six by September 22. Each of the shortlisted authors will receive 2,500 pounds and a specially-bound edition of their book.
The announcement of the Booker Prize 2026 winner will take place on November 9 at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London, with the winner receiving a trophy named ‘Iris’ along with the cash prize of 50,000 pounds.
Last year, Booker Prize winning author Kiran Desai returned to the coveted literary award shortlist with ‘The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny’. However, the 53-year-old Delhi-born author, who won the Booker Prize in 2006 with ‘The Inheritance of Loss’, lost out on a second win in 2025 to ‘Flesh’ by Hungarian British author David Szalay. PTI AK AMS
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.