Shortlist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, the UK’s leading literary prize, was announced on October 20, 2018. The nominees were Rachel Kushner (The Mars Room), Richard Powers (The Overstory), Esi Edugyan (Washington Black), Anna Burns (Milkman), Robin Robertson (The Long Take) and Daisy Johnson (Everything Under).
Noted philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, chair of the judges, commented: “Each of these novels is a miracle of stylistic invention. In each of them the language takes center stage. And yet in every other respect they are remarkably diverse, exploring a multitude of subjects ranging across space and time,” adding that, “These books speak very much to our moment, but we believe that they will endure.”
Daisy Johnson, the youngest author to be a nominee for the Booker Prize, was shortlisted for her debut novel, Everything Under. It wasn’t, however, the only debut novel in the shortlist as poet Robin Robertson’s The Long Take, the first verse novel to be selected, also got nominated.
Notably, four of the six nominated authors were women, although the list is still dominated by the US and the UK, with four of the six writers being selected from the two countries.
The Man Booker Prize, established in 1969, is awarded to an original novel written in English and published in the UK. Highly esteemed, previous winners of the award included high profile writers such as Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, VS Naipaul, Margaret Atwood, Arundhati Roy, and, among others, George Saunders.
The winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize will be announced on October 16.
