Singer-songwriter Dua Lipa will deliver a keynote speech at next week’s Booker Prize ceremony, a revamped version of the event that will also feature an appearance by Camilla, the queen consort.
Lipa, the pop musician known for hit singles including “New Rules” and “Don’t Start Now,” will speak about “how a love of reading has shaped her imagination, her identity, and her career as a global pop superstar,” the Booker Prize Foundation announced in a news release.
Camilla, a longtime advocate of reading who has her own book club, the Reading Room, will present the winner of the award with the Booker Prize trophy.
Lipa and Camilla’s appearances are part of a new look for the ceremony, which will be fully in-person for the first time since 2019. British stand-up comedian Sophie Duker will host the event, which will feature short filmed adaptations of excerpts from the nominated books, featuring actors including Sharon Horgan, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker.
The six books shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, considered the U.K.’s most prestigious fiction award, are Elizabeth Strout’s Oh William!, Percival Everett’s The Trees, NoViolet Bulawayo’s Glory, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These, Shehan Karunatilaka’s The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, and Alan Garner’s Treacle Walker.
The ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 17. The winner will be announced on the BBC at 4:50 p.m. Eastern time.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
