The Longlist for the Booker Prize 2022 – the leading literary award in the English speaking world – has been announced today, Tuesday 26 July 2022.

- Features youngest and oldest author ever to be longlisted: 20-year-old Leila Mottley and octogenarian Alan Garner, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on the night of the winner's ceremony

- At 116 pages, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is the shortest book recognised in the prize’s history 

- Three debut novelists make the list: Maddie Mortimer, Leila Mottley and Selby Wynn Schwartz

- The majority is published by independent publishers, including first time appearances from Influx Press and Sort of Books

The 13 books on this year’s longlist – the ‘Booker Dozen’ – were chosen by the 2022 judging panel: cultural historian, writer and broadcaster Neil MacGregor (chair); academic and broadcaster Shahidha Bari; historian Helen Castor; novelist and critic M John Harrison; and novelist, poet and professor Alain Mabanckou.

Their selection was made from 169 novels published between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022 and submitted to the prize by publishers. Coincidentally, this year’s longlist includes the first and last book the judges read.

The 2022 Longlist:

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwean) 

Trust by Hernan Diaz (American) 

The Trees by Percival Everett (American) 

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (American) 

Treacle Walker by Alan Garner (British) 

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Sri Lankan)

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Irish)  

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet (British)  

The Colony by Audrey Magee (Irish)

Maps of our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer (British) 

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley (American) 

After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz (American)

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (American)

Neil MacGregor, Chair of the 2022 Judges, said:

"Over the last seven months or so, we have read and discussed 169 works of fiction, all written in English, by authors and about subjects from all over the globe. 169 journeys to worlds conjured and created by the wielding of words alone. The skill with which writers shape and sustain those variously imagined worlds, and allow others to inhabit them, has been our main criterion in proposing this longlist of 13 books. Exceptionally well written and carefully crafted, in whatever genre, they seem to us to exploit and expand what the language can do. The list that we have selected offers story, fable and parable, fantasy, mystery, meditation and thriller.

These are thirteen books — challenging, stimulating, surprising, nourishing — that we recommend for close and enjoyable reading."

The Shortlist and Winner Announcements

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday 6 September at an evening event at the Serpentine Pavilion in London. The shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.

On Saturday 15 October, just ahead of the winner announcement, the shortlisted authors will be appearing at The Times & The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival. The Booker Prize shortlist event will be chaired by director of the Booker Prize Foundation, Gaby Wood.

The 2022 winner will be announced on Monday 17 October in an award ceremony held at the Roundhouse and fully in person for the first time since 2019. The winner receives £50,000 and can expect international recognition and a dramatic increase in global book sales.

Read the 2022 Longlist and decide on your winner!

#BookerPrize

#BookerPrize2022