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The annual Women’s prize for Fiction is just around the corner, and at long last the longlist has been revealed.
Now, in its 25th anniversary, the Women’s prize for Fiction has long been the staple for celebrating and honouring female authors for creating the stories that enrich our daily lives. The novels on this 16-strong longlist will no doubt be filling the shelves of bookstores and commuter suitcases the world over in 2020, featuring works from burgeoning writers just breaking onto the scene, and ofc works from the ‘heavy hitters’ who’ve shown continued excellence and originality over prosperous careers.
The Judges, chaired by Martha Lane Fox, have read over 152 novels and have stringently narrowed the pool down to just 16 entries, asserting that in its silver jubilee the Women’s prize for Fiction has seen ‘an extraordinary year’, revealing that the judges ‘revelled in the variety, depth, humanity and joy of the writing’. Judge Paula Hawkins (The Girl on the Train) recently declared ‘I think it is unusual to have a year with quite so many heavy hitters publishing’. That seems the natural place to start then.
Hilary Mantel is one of the favourites to take home the £30,000 prize for her historical novel, The Mirror and the Light, which charts the rise and fall of eminent minister Thomas Cromwell during the English Reformation. When addressing questions about the longlist, Hawkins was quick to identify Mantel as one of her favourites to win, stating: ‘I don’t know how she does it. She takes a story happening hundreds of years ago and makes you feel it could be happening this week. Her use of language is so wonderful that it feels current and yet not anachronistic’.
