2019 Booker Prize
The 2019 Booker Prize was the 51st edition of the prestigious annual literary award for the best original full-length novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, administered by the Booker Prize Foundation.[1] The prize process began with the announcement of a longlist of 13 novels on 23 July 2019, selected from 151 submissions by a judging panel chaired by literary festival director Peter Florence and including publisher Liz Calder, author Xiaolu Guo, journalist Afua Hirsch, and composer Joanna MacGregor.[1] This longlist featured works by established authors such as Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Jeanette Winterson, alongside debuts and international voices, including titles like Lanny by Max Porter, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, and Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli.[1] The shortlist of six novels was revealed on 3 September 2019, comprising The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann, An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma, Quichotte by Salman Rushdie, and The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy.[1] On 14 October 2019, at a ceremony held at London's Guildhall, the judges controversially announced a joint winning decision, awarding the £50,000 prize equally to Atwood for her dystopian sequel The Testaments—her second Booker win after The Blind Assassin in 2000—and to Evaristo for her interconnected stories of black British women Girl, Woman, Other, marking the first joint win since Michael Ondaatje and Barry Unsworth shared the prize in 1992 and breaking the judges' own rule of selecting a single winner.[1][2] Evaristo's victory made her the first black woman and the first black British author to win the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969.[2] The decision sparked debate among critics and publishers for challenging the prize's traditions, while highlighting diverse voices in contemporary fiction.[3]Judging Panel
Members and Backgrounds
The judging panel for the 2019 Booker Prize consisted of five members, chaired by Peter Florence, who brought a diverse range of expertise from literature, publishing, journalism, the arts, and international perspectives to evaluate the submissions.[1] Peter Florence, the chair, was a British literary organizer best known as the co-founder and director of the Hay Festival, an annual international celebration of literature and arts established in 1988. With a background in event curation and global literary promotion, Florence has extensive experience in fostering discussions on contemporary fiction through festivals and programs worldwide.[4][5] Liz Calder served as a veteran publisher and editor, having begun her career in 1971 at Victor Gollancz Ltd., where she championed authors like Angela Carter and John Irving. She later became fiction editor at Jonathan Cape before co-founding Bloomsbury Publishing in 1986, where she played a key role in launching the careers of writers such as Will Self and Anne Michaels; Calder also served on the board of Virago Press during its early years as a pioneering feminist imprint.[6][7][8] Xiaolu Guo, a Chinese-British novelist, essayist, and filmmaker, contributed an international viewpoint shaped by her upbringing in rural China and her relocation to the UK in 2002. Her acclaimed works, including the novel A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers (2007), explore themes of migration, language, and cultural identity; Guo studied film at the Beijing Film Academy and has directed documentaries and features that blend narrative and visual storytelling.[9][10] Afua Hirsch, a British-Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster, and author, offered insights from her multidisciplinary career, which includes work as a barrister in London, international law roles in The Hague, and development projects in West Africa. Hirsch is known for her nonfiction book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging (2018), which examines mixed-race experiences in Britain, and her contributions to outlets like The Guardian on issues of identity and social justice.[11][12] Joanna MacGregor, a British classical pianist, conductor, and composer, provided a perspective from the performing arts as the artistic director of the International Piano Series at London's Southbank Centre and former artistic director of the Bath International Festival. Renowned for innovative cross-genre collaborations blending classical music with jazz and world traditions, MacGregor also holds the position of Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music.[13][14] The panel was selected by the Booker Prize Foundation, in consultation with its advisory committee, to ensure a balanced representation of creative peers with deep knowledge of fiction across genres and cultures; this group collectively reviewed 151 eligible submissions from publishers in the UK and Ireland.[15][16][17]Selection Process and Criteria
The 2019 Booker Prize was open to original full-length novels written in English and first published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019.[18] Authors of any nationality were eligible following a 2014 rule change that expanded participation beyond Commonwealth, Irish, and certain other citizens.[19] Self-published works were ineligible, and submissions could only be made by UK- or Ireland-based publishers, with each imprint limited to one title if it had no prior longlist appearances in the previous five years, two if it had one or two, three if it had three or four, and four if it had five or more.[20] In total, 151 novels were submitted for consideration.[18] The judging process began with all five panel members conducting an initial reading of the submissions.[21] They then selected a longlist of 13 titles, known as the "Booker Dozen," through consensus, which was announced in July 2019. This was narrowed to a shortlist of six novels in September, again by collective agreement among the judges.[22] The final winner was determined by majority vote from the shortlist during deliberations in October.[23] The panel's diverse expertise in literature, publishing, journalism, and the arts enabled a balanced evaluation across genres and styles.[20] Selection criteria prioritized literary excellence, with an emphasis on originality, narrative power, emotional impact, and the work's contribution to contemporary fiction; no specific genres were restricted, as long as the entry was a full-length novel.[24] The rules stipulated a single winner, who would receive £50,000, though the 2019 panel ultimately awarded the prize jointly by unanimous decision.[23]Nominees
Longlist
The longlist for the 2019 Booker Prize consisted of 13 novels selected from 151 submissions published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2018, and September 30, 2019.[1] The announcement was made on July 23, 2019, highlighting a diverse array of voices spanning experimental narratives, historical fiction, and explorations of social issues.[25] The full list of longlisted titles and authors is as follows:| Title | Author | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| The Testaments | Margaret Atwood | Canada/UK |
| Night Boat to Tangier | Kevin Barry | Ireland |
| My Sister, the Serial Killer | Oyinkan Braithwaite | Nigeria/UK |
| The Confessions of Frannie Langton | Sara Collins | UK/Jamaica |
| Ducks, Newburyport | Lucy Ellmann | UK/US |
| Girl, Woman, Other | Bernardine Evaristo | UK |
| The Man Who Saw Everything | Deborah Levy | UK/South Africa |
| Lanny | Max Porter | UK |
| Quichotte | Salman Rushdie | UK/India |
| 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World | Elif Shafak | Turkey/UK |
| Frankissstein | Jeanette Winterson | UK |
| An Orchestra of Minorities | Chigozie Obioma | Nigeria |
| The Nickel Boys | Colson Whitehead | US |
| Lost Children Archive | Valeria Luiselli | Mexico/US |
Shortlist
The 2019 Booker Prize shortlist, consisting of six novels, was announced on September 3, 2019, at a press conference held at the British Library in London.[18] This selection was drawn from the initial longlist of 13 titles, narrowing the field to those demonstrating exceptional literary merit among 151 submissions overall.[26] The shortlisted works and their authors are:- The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
- The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy
- An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
- Quichotte by Salman Rushdie[1]