Happy International Women's Day! Every year, the Women's Prize Trust, based in the UK, awards the Women's Prize for Fiction to an outstanding novel by an author identifying as a woman. In addition to the award-winning book, sixteen novels are longlisted earlier in the season, allowing readers to discover many fantastic authors and titles. The longlist was announced this morning to coincide with International Women's Day. Oftentimes, the books receive glowing attention across the globe before gaining full popularity here, so some may as yet unheard of, while others may be on our radar. Either way, it's a bounty of fiction to explore! The longlist will be whittled down to a shortlist of six on April 27th by a panel of judges, with the winner announced on June 15th.
The longlist was announced just this morning, and you can check it out below, with links to see a bit more about each and request the books from our catalog. Afterward, explore a list of the 26 winning novels that make up the award's exciting history of wonderful novels. For those books that don't come with a link... they haven't quite made it to our shores with full gusto yet, but keep an eye out! These novels are often ones to watch for. After you're done perusing, you can also watch a video of this morning's longlist announcement below.
Onward to happy discoveries! Stayed tuned to Book Talk by the Sea throughout Women's History Month for a poetry by women and a varied reading list of books by and about women.
The 2022 Longlist
Build Your House Around My Body Violet Kupersmith
Careless, Kirsty Capes
Creatures of Passage, Morowa Yejidé
Flamingo, Rachel Elliott
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead
Remote Sympathy, Catherine Chidgey
Salt Lick, Lulu Allison
Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason
The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki
The Bread the Devil Knead, Lisa Allen-Agostini
The Exhibitionist, Charlotte Mendelson
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Dawnie Walton
The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak
The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller
The Sentence, Louise Erdrich
This One Sky Day, Leone Ross
Past Winners
A Spell of Winter, Helen Dunmore
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
Larry's Party, Carol Shields
A Crime in the Neighborhood, Suzanne Berne
When I Lived in Modern Times, Linda Grant
The Idea of Perfection, Kate Grenville
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Property, Valerie Martin
Small Island, Andrea Levy
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Road Home, Rose Tremain
Home, Marilynne Robinson
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver
The Tiger's Wife, Téa Obreht
The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller
May We Be Forgiven, A.M. Homes
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, Eimear McBride
How to Be Both, Ali Smith
The Glorious Heresies, Lisa McInerney
The Power, Naomi Alderman
Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
Hamnet, Maggie O'Farrell
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke