The Booker Prize announced its 2026 longlist on 28 July, naming 13 novels including work by two previous winners and three debut novelists, selected from 163 submissions.
Douglas Stuart, who won in 2020 for Shuggie Bain, and Marlon James, who took the prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, both return to the list. Elizabeth Strout is nominated for a third time, for The Things We Never Say.
Who is judging this year?
The panel is chaired by the classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard, joined by the poet Raymond Antrobus, the musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker, the critic and editor Rebecca Liu, and the novelist Patricia Lockwood, who was herself shortlisted in 2021.
Beard said in a statement that “great books have never been written to a single formula”, describing a selection spanning dystopian fantasy, domestic drama and crime.
What is the Booker Prize 2026 longlist?
The Booker Prize 2026 longlist, announced on 28 July 2026, comprises 13 novels selected from 163 submissions written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026. The judging panel is chaired by the classicist Mary Beard, alongside Raymond Antrobus, Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu and Patricia Lockwood. The list includes two previous winners, Douglas Stuart and Marlon James, and three debut novelists. Elizabeth Strout appears as a third-time nominee. Five longlisted authors are American and six are British, with seven nationalities represented in total. The shortlist of six books will be announced on 22 September 2026 at the Southbank Centre in London, and the winner on 9 November 2026 at Old Billingsgate. The winner receives fifty thousand pounds and each shortlisted author two thousand five hundred pounds.
Could the prize have its oldest winner?
The longlisted novelists range in age from 28 to 81. Publishers Weekly noted the oldest, who has published continuously since 1971, would become the oldest recipient in the prize’s history if he won, passing Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she won for The Testaments in 2019.
Only four writers have won the Booker twice: J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood.
Where do the books come from?
| Detail | 2026 longlist |
|---|---|
| Books longlisted | 13 |
| Submissions | 163 |
| Debut novelists | 3 |
| Previous winners | 2 |
| Nationalities | 7 |
Imprints of Penguin Random House account for five of the thirteen titles, with Picador and John Murray taking two each and 4th Estate one. Titles include The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis, Switzy by Emma Cline and Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman.
The prize is the sister award to the International Booker Prize for translated fiction, which went in May to Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, translated by Lin King, the first book originally written in Mandarin to win it.
Eligible books were written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026. The prize has run for more than 55 years and is awarded for a single work of long-form fiction by a writer of any nationality.
Judges praised the range of the list, which spans satire, science fiction, historical fiction, crime and campus novels, with settings from Mexico City and Kingston to the Outer Hebrides and an unnamed medieval court.
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Sources for this report
The Redline News Desk
The Redline News desk files and edits world reporting. Every story carries the sources it was built from, and corrections are published on the story itself.
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