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Announcing the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist

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Pierce Alquist

Senior Contributor

Pierce Alquist is a transplanted New Yorker living and working in the publishing scene in Boston. Don’t worry if she fooled you, the red hair is misleading. She’s a literature in translation devotee and reviewer and lover of small, independent presses. A voracious traveler and foodie, you can find her in her kitchen making borscht or covered in red pepper paste as she perfects her kimchi recipe.

The 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction Longlist has been announced! The list is comprised of 16 novels that meet the award criteria of “excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women in English from throughout the world.” This year’s longlist has a mixture of both well-established writers (notably Arundhati Roy, Jennifer Egan, and the force to be reckoned with that is Jesmyn Ward) and debut authors like Gail Honeyman.  The list also spans a range of genres and four continents.

2018 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist Judges and Books

Sarah Sands, the 2018 Chair of Judges commented, “What is striking about the list, apart from the wealth of talent, is that women writers refuse to be pigeon-holed. We have searing social realism, adventure, comedy, poetic truths, ingenious plots and unforgettable characters. Women of the world are a literary force to be reckoned with.”

The shortlist will be announced on April 23rd and the winner will be announced on June 6th.

And here’s the list!

H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon

Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

Sight by Jessie Greengrass

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy

Elmet by Fiona Mozley

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward