The Booker Prize 2026 Longlist Announced

The Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in the publishing industry, is back. This year, its judging panel comprises award-winning poet, writer and educator Raymond Antrobus; musician, writer and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker; journalist, editor and critic Rebecca Liu; and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, poet and essayist Patricia Lockwood. The panel is chaired by classicist, writer and broadcaster Mary Beard, known for her works SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2015) and The Roman Triumph (2007).

Over a long deliberation period, the judges have selected 13 works of long-form fiction from 163 applicants. Commenting on the process, Beard says, “Great books have never been written to a single formula. We are confident that our longlist of books has something for everyone. There’s the funny and the unsettling (and in some cases the funny and unsettling); there’s dystopian fantasy and domestic drama; there’s the gritty and the magically mysterious; there are some that will please and some that may shock.”

She continues: “[The longlisted books are] set anywhere and everywhere: Ireland and Italy, Mexico and Massachusetts, Jamaica and the Hebrides, universities, private planes and pubs, past, present and future. But there’s one thing they all share. Every writer on our longlist brilliantly musters the power of words on the page to take the reader to new places, to see old places from new angles, to change minds.”

From the list of 13 books, there are three debut novels: Kenan Orhan’s The Renovation, Djamel White’s All Them Dogs and Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King. Two previous winners–Scottish-American writer Douglas Stuart, who won with Shuggie Bain in 2020, and Jamaican author Marlon James, who won with A Brief History of Seven Killings in 2015– feature on the list again with John of John and The Disappearers, respectively. 81-year-old M John Harrison, longlisted for the first time with The End of Everything, is in the running to be the oldest ever recipient, surpassing Margaret Atwood, who won the prize at age 79 in 2019.

The shortlist will be announced at the Southbank Centre, London on September 22, 2026. The winning book will be announced on November 9, 2026 at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. The winner will receive £50,000, while the shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500.