Morowa Yejidé, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Dawnie Walton, and Leone Ross are on the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 announced today.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary prizes first handed out in 1996. It is awarded annually to a female author of any nationality for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the preceding year. Previous winners of the prize include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zadie Smith, and Ali Smith.
The panel of judges, announced on November 9, comprises Chair of Judges, Mary Ann Sieghart alongside award-winning journalist and editor Lorraine Candy; award-winning author and literary journalist Anita Sethi; global bestselling novelist, journalist, and podcaster Dorothy Koomson; and journalist, broadcaster, and author Pandora Sykes.
The panel has today, International Women’s Day, revealed the longlist for the prize, and Chair of judges and author Mary Ann Sieghart said: ‘Choosing just 16 novels from 175 submissions was a marathon task. After a lively and passionate discussion, my fellow judges were delighted to find that our 16 favourite novels were incredibly diverse, written by women of all ages from all over the world, covering different genres, and from publishers large and small. We are confident that this wonderful, eclectic, and inspiring longlist will offer something to entrance every reader, both male and female.’
The writers of African descent on the list are;
- Creatures of Passage, Morowa Yejidé
- The Bread the Devil Knead, Lisa Allen-Agostini
- The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, Dawnie Walton
- This One Sky Day, Leone Ross
Lisa Allen-Agostini tweeted, “Praise God for his goodness and mercy endureth forevah. Note: I am an unagented nobody woman from #TrinidadandTobago and wrote a book– in Trini Creole– about an unimportant nobody woman. Psalms 118:23.”
Leone Ross tweeted; “In 1996, 24 yrs ago, my first novel was longlisted for the first @WomensPrize – it was called the Orange Prize in those days. I was so encouraged. Now I’m encouraged all over again. Thank you, judges. 🦋 When @FaberBooks told me, a rainbow came and sat on my bed.”
Watch the longlist prize announcement below;
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