25th July, 2019
Three Nigerian authors made the list of 13 people announced in the longlist of the 2019 Booker Prize.
They are Oyinkan Braithwaite, Chigozie Obioma and Bernardine Evaristo.
Bernardine Evaristo, a British-Nigerian, made the list for her eighth book, ‘Girl, Woman, Other’; Chigozie Obioma for his second novel, ‘An Orchestra of Minorities’; and Oyinkan Braithwaite for her Women’s Prize-shortlisted debut novel, ‘My Sister, the Serial Killer.’
The 13 novels were selected from 151 submissions. Also long-listed are former winners: Margaret Atwood for her The Handmaid’s Tale sequel, The Testaments; and Salman Rushdie for Quichotte. The shortlist will be out on September 3, and the winner will be announced on October 14.
This is the first nomination for Evaristo and Braithwaite, and the second for Obioma, following his 2015 shortlisted debut, The Fishermen. Braithwaite’s nomination makes her the youngest candidate for the £50,000 prize this year.
Gaby Wood, Literary Director, the Booker Prize Foundation, said the longlist showed the incredible range of what was being written today, saying that there were familiar names here writing at the height of their powers, while there were young writers of exceptional imagination and daring.
“There is wit, incisive political thought, stillness and thrill. And there is a plurality that shows the making of literature in English to be a global endeavour,” Wood said.
Former publisher and editor Liz Calder, novelist Xiaolu Guo, musician Joanna MacGregor, writer Afua Hirsch, and Hay Festival director Peter Florence make up the judging panel.