The Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction is an award given by the UK to the best novel each year written by a woman. Authors may come from any country. Each year the Bailey’s judges nominate a longlist of 20 books and a shortlist of 6 books.
Bailey’s Prize winners include some books I’ve really liked (The Lacuna, Small Island), but also a few books I didn’t get through (Bel Canto, May We Be Forgiven, and How to be both). I’m much more interested in the longlist and the shortlist than in who actually wins the prize. Many of my favorite books have been on the shortlist: Americanah, Flight Behavior, Where’d You Go Bernadette, The Lowland, and Burial Rites.
I already read a lot of fiction by women, but the longlist/shortlist is a good way to discover new authors and up the literary level of my reading. This year’s list is fairly diverse and seems to have more first-time and less-known authors than previous lists. From the Bailey’s website: “over half the longlist is occupied by debut novels alongside four previously shortlisted authors. Seven nationalities are represented including the first Zimbabwean author to be longlisted for the Prize.”
I have no specific goal in mind, I’m just interested in reading from this year’s list. Since my reading for the first part of the year has been pretty light, this is a good way to dig into something deeper.
This year’s longlist is:
- Kate Atkinson: A God in Ruins
- Shirley Barrett: Rush Oh!
- Cynthia Bond: Ruby
- Geraldine Brooks: The Secret Chord
- Becky Chambers: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Jackie Copleton: A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding
- Rachel Elliott: Whispers Through a Megaphone
- Anne Enright: The Green Road
- Petina Gappah: The Book of Memory
- Vesna Goldsworthy: Gorsky
- Clio Gray: The Anatomist’s Dream
- Melissa Harrison: At Hawthorn Time
- Attica Locke: Pleasantville
- Lisa McInerney: The Glorious Heresies
- Elizabeth McKenzie: The Portable Veblen
- Sara Nović: Girl at War
- Julia Rochester: The House at the Edge of the World
- Hannah Rothschild: The Improbability of Love
- Elizabeth Strout: My Name is Lucy Barton
- Hanya Yanagihara: A Little Life
The shortlist was announced on April 11th:
- Cynthia Bond: Ruby
- Anne Enright: The Green Road
- Lisa McInerney: The Glorious Heresies
- Elizabeth McKenzie:The Portable Veblen
- Hannah Rothschild: The Improbability of Love
- Hanya Yanagihara:A Little Life
My thoughts so far? Girl at War was very good. A God in Ruins was excellent. Small, Angry Planet was really entertaining but felt too light, not literary enough for this award. (I’m all for having science fiction represented in this award but this isn’t the book I’d have chosen.) I’m reading The Portable Veblen and I’m absolutely in love with it.
I’m planning to read Pleasantville, and I hear very good things about Rush Oh! and The Glorious Heresies. I like Geraldine Brooks so I may give The Secret Chord a try, but I’m not sure I’m interested in the subject matter. A lot of people have read A Little Life, but it sounds a bit too dark for me. I started The Improbability of Love and didn’t warm to it.
If you’re in London (which sadly I am not) you can actually go see the shortlist authors read their books on June 6th. The winner will be announced June 8th.
What have you read on this list, or what are you planning to read?
Are there other awards you like to follow and read, like the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, or the Man Booker Prize? What are your favorites?
