Previously known as the Bailey’s Prize for Fiction (2013-2016) and the Orange Prize for Fiction (1996-2012), the Women’s Prize for Fiction announced its 2019 shortlist today. The award, created in the wake of a 1991 all-male Booker Prize shortlist, celebrates “excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world.” The longlist, which includes seven debut novels, is as follows (with bonus links when possible):
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker (also nominated for the 2018 Costa Book Awards shortlist and featured in our September Preview)
Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (featured in our November Preview)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder (mentioned in Marta Bausell’s 2018 Year in Reading and interviewed by The Millions here)
Milkman by Anna Burns (winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize)
Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (mentioned in not one, or even two, but three Year in Reading posts; Emezi was also a 5 Under 35 honoree this year)
Ordinary People by Diana Evans (featured in our September Preview)
Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (February Preview)
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li (interview with Li here, plus mentions in quite a few of our Year in Reading posts)
Bottled Goods by Sophie van Llewyn
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (featured in two Previews and two Year in Reading posts)
Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden (praised in Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s Year in Reading)
Circe by Madeline Miller (Steph Opitz’s , Marta Bausells’s, and Kaulie Lewis‘s Year in Reading)
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss (reviewed here and here)
Normal People by Sally Rooney (in two 2018 Year in Reading posts)
The shortlist will be announced on April 29th, and the winner will be selected on June 5th.
