Along with Isabella Hammad, VV Ganeshananthan, Kate Grenville, and Aube Rey Lescure, Anne Enright and Claire Kilroy have been shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2024.
The award is in its 29th year, and three of the writers have been nominated before: Ganeshananthan was longlisted in 2009; Anne Enright has been longlisted twice (in 2008 and 2020) and shortlisted twice (in 2012 and 2016); and Kate Grenville won the prize in 2001 for The Idea of Perfection (Picador).
Ganeshananthan is shortlisted this year for Brotherless Night (Viking), Enright for The Wren, The Wren (Jonathan Cape) and Grenville for Restless Dolly Maunder (Canongate). The entries by Isabella Hammad and Clair Kilroy are also in the running, as is the sole debut novel, River East, River West, published by Aube Rey Lescure (Duckworth Books).
Monica Ali, chair of judges, said: “This year’s shortlist features six brilliant, thought-provoking and spell-binding novels that between them capture an enormous breadth of the human experience. Readers will be captivated by the characters, the luminous writing and the exquisite storytelling. Each book is gloriously compelling and inventive and lingers in the heart and mind long after the final page.”
Ali is joined on the judging panel by author Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ; author and illustrator Laura Dockrill; actor Indira Varma; and presenter and author Anna Whitehouse.
At a summer gala in central London on Thursday, June 13, 2024, the Women’s Prize Trust will reveal both the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction and the debut winner of the 2024 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction. An anonymously gifted cheque for £30,000 and a limited-edition bronze figurine called the “Bessie” made and given by artist Grizel Niven will be presented to the winner.
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