Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018 Longlist

The Women’s Prize for Fiction has celebrated International Women’s Day by announcing the 2018 longlist. Now in its twenty-third year, the Prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women in English from throughout the world.

This year’s judges are Sarah Sands (Chair), Anita Anand, Katie Brand, Catherine Mayer and Imogen Stubbs.

The 16 longlisted writers and the titles of their novels are: 

  • H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker (William Heinemann)
  • The Idiot by Elif Bautman (Vintage, Jonathan Cape)
  • Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon (The Borough Press, HarperCollins)
  • Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig (Grove Press, Atlantic Books)
  • The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal (Viking, Penguin Random House)
  • Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan (Corsair, Little, Brown Book Group)
  • The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowan (Vintage, Harvill Secker)
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (HarperFiction, HarperCollins)
  • When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasmy (Atlantic Books)
  • Sight by Jessie Greengrass (John Murray Press)
  • Elmet by Fiona Mozley (Joh Murray Originals, John Murray Press)
  • The Ministry of Upmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
  • See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt (Tinder Press, Headline)
  • A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert (Virago, Little, Brown Book Group)
  • Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury)
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury)

The winner will receive a cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition bronze known as a ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. The shortlist will be announced on 23 April 2018, and the winner will be presented with the Prize at an awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on 6 June 2018.