The Women’s Prize for Fiction unveiled the longlist for its 2026 award, with 16 novels in contention for the U.K.-based prize for women authors.
Megha Majumdar made the longlist for A Guardian and a Thief, which was a finalist for last year’s Kirkus Prize. Addie E. Citchens’ Dominion and Lily King’s Heart the Lover earned nominations; both books were recently named finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award.
Susan Choi’s Flashlight and Katie Kitamura’s Audition, both Booker Prize finalists, made the Women’s Prize longlist, alongside Lucy Apps’ Gloria Don’t Speak, Hannah Lillith Assadi’s Paradiso 17, Elaine Castillo’s Moderation, Wendy Erskine’s The Benefactors, and Virginia Evans’ The Correspondent.
Marcia Hutchinson was longlisted for The Mercy Step, as were Sheena Kalayil for The Others, Rozie Kelly for Kingfisher, Charlotte McConaghy for Wild Dark Shore, Kit de Waal for The Best of Everything, and Alice Evelyn Yang for A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing.
The prize’s chair of judges, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, said, “Across a longlist that is international in both scope and setting, these sixteen books masterfully demonstrate the power of fiction to examine the messy business of being human.”
The Women’s Prize for Fiction was established in 1996. Previous winners include Carol Shields for Larry’s Party, Zadie Smith for On Beauty, and Yael van der Wouden for The Safekeep.
The shortlist for the prize, which comes with a cash award of 30,000 British pounds—about $40,000—will be announced on April 22, with the winner revealed at a ceremony in London on June 11.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
