The Women’s Prize is my favorite literary award. I’ve discovered so many wonderful authors just by reading from their longlist each year, and I always enjoy following the award through the year to see which favorites make the shortlist and receive the final prize. The longlist was announced March 8, the shortlist of 6 books will be announced April 27, with a winner announced in June.
The Women’s Prize goes to novels by female authors written in English, regardless of nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter. The books had to be published in the United Kingdom between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 (often these books are published later in the U.S.).
Some favorite authors receiving the award are Tayari Jones, Kamila Shamsie, Helen Dunmore, Barbara Kingsolver, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rose Tremain, Kate Grenville, Ann Patchett and Madeline Miller.
I haven’t read any on this year’s list. Two, by Louise Erdrich and Ruth Ozeki, were already on my TBR list. The remainder are all authors I’ve never read, and most are books I hadn’t even heard of. Usually I know more of them – last year I had already read two.
According to the Women’s Prize, this year’s books “span the globe in their settings, from Trinidad, Cyprus and a dystopian England, to Cape Cod, Buchenwald, and Vietnam. There are five British authors, six Americans, two New Zealanders, one Turkish-British, one American-Canadian, and one Trinidadian writer on the longlist.” Five are debut novelists (Kupersmith, Walton, Capes, Heller are four and I’m not sure who is the fifth). Previously nominated authors are Mendelson, Shafak, Chidgey, Ross, and Elliott. I was very surprised to hear Erdrich hasn’t been nominated before and I also thought Shipstead had been.
Here are the books:
- Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
- Careless by Kirsty Capes
- Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé
- Flamingo by Rachel Elliott
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
- Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey
- Salt Lick by Lulu Allison
- Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
- The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
- The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen-Agostini
- The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson
- The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
- The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
- The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
- The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
- This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
Each year I go through the list and try to read about half. Some people wait for the shortlist, but I often find many of my favorites don’t make the shortlist. Favorites from last year’s list included The Vanishing Half, Transcendent Kingdom, Piranesi, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House and (just finished) Small Pleasures. I enjoyed but was less enthused by Luster, Detransition Baby, and Burnt Sugar.
From this year’s list, I’ll definitely read The Sentence and The Book of Form and Emptiness. Many of the others are not yet available to me, but some that look the most interesting are The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Creatures of Passage, The Bread the Devil Knead, Sorrow and Bliss, Build Your House Around My Body, and Careless.
Have you read anything from the list, and if so, what do you recommend? Are there any you think you’ll read? Or any you think are missing from the list?
