Today, the Booker Prize committee announced this year’s “Booker Dozen”; a longlist of 13 novels recognized for the United Kingdom’s premier literary prize, celebrating substantial English-language fiction published in the UK and/or Ireland between October 2025 and September 2026. The pool of candidates was drawn from 163 submissions; the eventual winner will receive £50,000, and each shortlisted author will be awarded £2,500.
“Great books have never been written to a single formula,” said Mary Beard, Chair of the 2026 Judges, in a statement. “We are confident that our longlist has something to offer every reader.”
There’s a blend of wit and unease (often both together); there are visions of dystopian futures paired with intimate, domestic tales; there’s grit and the sense of the magical and the mysterious; there are titles destined to please and others that may provoke. The settings span the globe and beyond: Ireland and Italy, Mexico and Massachusetts, Jamaica and the Hebrides, as well as universities, private planes and pubs, traversing past, present, and future. Yet one thread unites them all. Each writer on this list wields language with a powerful force, guiding readers to unknown places, inviting fresh views of familiar spaces, and challenging perspectives.
And now, here’s the longlist:
Chloe Aridjis, The Shadow of the Object
Emma Cline, Switzy
Makenna Goodman, Helen of Nowhere
M. John Harrison, The End of Everything
Marlon James, The Disappearers
Luke Kennard, Black Bag
Kenan Orhan, The Renovation
Rebecca Perry, May We Feed the King
Gwendoline Riley, The Palm House
Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say
Douglas Stuart, John of John
Djamel White, All Them Dogs
Missouri Williams, The Vivisectors
The Booker Prize shortlist will be revealed on September 22, and the winner will be crowned at a ceremony on November 9. In the meantime, this list offers a compelling reading slate for the tail end of summer and the start of autumn…
