On the morning of Tuesday, the 8th March we woke to find out who had made it on to the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 longlist. An award that’s been won by Susanna Clarke, Maggie O’Farrell and Tayari Jones in most recent years, but has also seen Helen Dumore, Kate Grenville, Ann Patchett, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Madeline Miller and Ali Smith named as the winner in the awards 26 year history. 

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is well-known for being one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world. Over the years it’s been known as the Orange Prize for fiction from 1996 to 2012 and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction from 2014 to 2017. Throughout it’s 26 year history the book award has worked to highlight and celebrate women’s writing in all its excellence, originality and accessibility. Each year, the winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze statuette created and donated by artist Grizel Niven and affectionately known as the ‘Bessie’.

It it’s 27th year, the greatest international prize for women’s creativity has shined a spotlight on both debut and acclaimed writers who’ve demonstrated outstanding, ambitious, original fiction written in English. Open to women writers from anywhere in the world this year’s longlist includes five Brits, six Americans, two New Zealanders and one Turkish British, one American-Canadian and one Trinidadian author. This year’s longlist includes 5 debut authors as well as 5 authors who have been previously longlisted. 

This year’s Chair of judges is author Mary Ann Sieghart, who has said ‘Choosing just 16 novels from 175 submissions was a marathon task. After a lively and passionate discussion, my fellow judges were delighted to find that our 16 favourite novels were incredibly diverse, written by women of all ages from all over the world, covering different genres, and from publishers large and small. We are confident that this wonderful, eclectic and inspiring longlist will offer something to entrance every reader, both male and female.’

Also joining Mary Ann as part of the 2022 judging panel is award-winning journalist and editor Lorraine Candy, global bestselling novelist Dorothy Koomson, award winning author and literary journalist Anita Sethi and journalist, broadcaster and author Pandora Sykes. Click here to find out more about this year’s panel of judges.

Photo provided by the Women's Prize for Fiction and credited to Sam Holden for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

“But which books are on the longlist?”, we hear you cry.  Don’t worry, without further delay, the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist are as follows:

The Bread the Devil Knead by Lisa Allen Agostini (Myriad Editions)

Salt Lick by Lulu Allison (Unbound Digital)

Careless by Kirsty Capes (Orion Fiction)

Remote Sympathy by Catherine Chidgey (Europa Editions)

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller (Viking)

Flamingo by Rachel Elliott (Tinder Press)

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Corsair)

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith (Oneworld)

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (Weidenfield & Nicholson)

The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle)

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Canongate Books)

This One Sky Day by Leone Ross (Faber & Faber)

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (Viking)

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (Doubleday)

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton (Quercus)

Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé (Jacaranda Books)

To find out more about the Women’s Prize for Fiction and past winners head to our awards page. More information can also be found at www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk.