The shortlist for the Booker Prize will be revealed at a public event for the first time in the British literary award’s 56-year history.
The Booker Prize Foundation announced in a news release that the prize’s judges will unveil the names of the books chosen as finalists for the award on September 23 at an event at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre. Gaby Wood, the foundation’s CEO, will host a conversation with the prize’s five judges, authors Roddy Doyle, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Chris Power, Kiley Reid, and actor Sarah Jessica Parker.
On October 11, Wood will host an event with the six finalists at the Cheltenham Literature Festival; the authors will appear in-person and virtually.
The shortlist readings will take place at the Royal Festival Hall on November 9, with the Booker Prize ceremony scheduled for the following day.
Thirteen books are in the running for this year’s Booker Prize, including titles by Kiran Desai, Susan Choi, and Katie Kitamura.
The award, which honors “the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the U.K, and Ireland,” was established in 1969. Previous winners include Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children, Kazuo Ishiguro for The Remains of the Day, Eleanor Catton for The Luminaries, and Samantha Harvey for Orbital.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
