Booker Prize 2024 Longlist Features Dominance of British and American Authors Amidst Global Diversity

The 2024 Booker Prize longlist celebrates diverse global voices, featuring notable authors like Percival Everett and Tommy Orange, with strong British and American representation.

on Jul 31, 2024

Booker Prize 2024 Longlist Features Dominance of British and American Authors Amidst Global Diversity

The 2024 Booker Prize longlist, featuring 13 authors, showcases a rich tapestry of global voices while highlighting a significant presence of British and American writers. This prestigious literary award has revealed its longlist, celebrating international authorship and captivating narratives.

Among the notable longlisted authors are Percival Everett, Hisham Matar, and Sarah Perry. The "Booker dozen" also includes works by Richard Powers, Tommy Orange, Rachel Kushner, and Anne Michaels. Edmund de Waal, chair of the judging panel, described this year's list as "glorious," noting the inclusion of strong, diverse voices.

Percival Everett's James, which offers a fresh perspective on Huckleberry Finn through the eyes of the enslaved Jim, is a standout on the list. The judging panel, including Guardian fiction editor Justine Jordan, novelists Sara Collins and Yiyun Li, musician Nitin Sawhney, and de Waal, praised Everett’s work for confronting the past and inspiring a progressive future, solidifying his status as a literary sensation.

Tommy Orange, the first Native American nominee, is recognized for his second novel, Wandering Stars, exploring themes of addiction, displacement, trauma, and identity. Other American nominees include Rita Bullwinkel with Headshot and Canadian-American Claire Messud with This Strange Eventful History.

The longlist also features authors from the UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and the Netherlands, with Anne Michaels’ Held, British-Libyan Hisham Matar’s My Friends, and Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep, the first Dutch contender in Booker history.

Three British authors have made the list: Hisham Matar, Sarah Perry, and Samantha Harvey. Perry’s fourth novel, Enlightenment, set in a 1990s Essex town, explores the cosmos, faith, and love. Samantha Harvey’s Orbital portrays a day in the lives of six astronauts on the International Space Station. Hisham Matar’s My Friends delves into the 1984 Libyan embassy shooting in London, a historical event.

De Waal emphasized the list’s blend of "timely and timeless fiction," with books that unfold quietly and others that are incendiary, exploring themes of belonging, displacement, and return.
The Booker Prize, open to works published between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024, has evolved since its 1969 inception to include authors of any nationality, provided the books are originally written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.

The shortlist for the £50,000 prize will be announced on September 16, with the winner revealed on November 12. Recent winners include Douglas Stuart, Shehan Karunatilaka, Damon Galgut, and 2019 joint winners Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood. Last year's prize went to Paul Lynch for his novel Prophet Song.