An author on the Booker Prize longlist has previous ties to Sarah Jessica Parker, one of this year’s judges for the prestigious literary award, the Guardian reports.
Claire Adam made the longlist for her novel Love Forms, published in the U.S. on Tuesday by Hogarth. Adam’s previous novel, Golden Child, was published in 2019 by Parker’s SJP imprint at the press. (Parker’s new imprint, SJP Lit, is at Zando.)
The Guardian notes that Golden Child is being adapted as a film by Pretty Matches Productions, the company that Parker founded with Alison Benson in 2005. In a June interview with the British newspaper the Times, Adam said, “SJP is very literary. She reads loads and so it was really fun to hang out with her. She’s so lovely and sincere. She read the book cover to cover and got up at 5 a.m. to travel to meet me.”
Gaby Wood, the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, told the Guardian, “It is not uncommon for judges to have a connection to authors whose work has been submitted, so all judges have to declare any conflicts of interest at the outset. As Sarah Jessica Parker published Claire Adam’s first novel, Golden Child, under her U.S. imprint SJP for Hogarth, she declared the potential conflict to ensure transparency and only gave her view on the book after the other judges had shared theirs. No book can go through if it is supported by one judge alone, and Love Forms has earned its place on the Booker prize 2025 longlist through the active support of other judges on the panel.”
The other judges on the panel for this year’s prize are authors Roddy Doyle, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Kiley Reid, and Chris Power.
The shortlist for this year’s award will be revealed on September 23, with the winner revealed at a ceremony in London on November 10.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
