Historic Booker Prize Shortlist Features 5 Women Finalists

Five women authors dominate the 2024 Booker Prize shortlist, exploring identity, race, and love. Winner to be announced on November 12 with £50,000 prize.

on Sep 26, 2024

For the first time in its 55-year history, five women authors have made it to the final six on the 2024 Booker Prize shortlist. The 2024 shortlist, revealed at an event in London, includes authors from the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, and the Netherlands, with the latter represented for the first time in the prize’s history.

Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake centered on a spy-for-hire infiltrating an environmental group, and Percival Everett’s James, a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of an enslaved runaway, are among the six shortlisted books. Joining them are Samantha Harvey's Orbital, a tale of astronauts on a space station, and Yael van der Wouden’s The Safekeep, an intimate story of unexpected love between a woman and her brother’s girlfriend.

Anne Michaels’ Held, a family saga starting in WWI, and Charlotte Wood’s Stone Yard Devotional, about a woman’s climate despair leading her to join a convent, round out the list.

Edmund de Waal, chair of the judging panel, said the shortlisted books explored contemporary issues of identity, race, and sexuality while remaining compelling reads. Novelist Sara Collins, also on the judging panel, called the female-dominated shortlist "a thrilling and gratifying moment."

The winner will be announced on November 12 and will receive the winning amount of £50,000.