The Booker Prizes announced the 2026 longlist on July 28, 2026, per The Booker Prizes: thirteen books, selected from 163 submitted titles, are in contention for the £50,000 award. Elizabeth Strout, Marlon James, and Emma Cline sit alongside past winner Douglas Stuart on the list.
The longlisted titles include The Things We Cannot Say by Elizabeth Strout, The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis, Switzy by Emma Cline, and Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman. Rebecca Perry and Marlon James are also longlisted, as is Douglas Stuart, who won the 2020 Booker Prize for Shuggie Bain.
Among the thirteen longlisted titles, per The Booker Prizes:
- The Things We Cannot Say — Elizabeth Strout
- The Shadow of the Object — Chloe Aridjis
- Switzy — Emma Cline
- Helen of Nowhere — Makenna Goodman
- Also longlisted — Marlon James, Rebecca Perry, and Douglas Stuart
The shortlist follows on September 22, 2026, announced at the Southbank Centre in London. The winner will be named on November 9, 2026, at Old Billingsgate in London, receiving £50,000.
The award commands attention across the international book trade, a story also followed by outlets including Reuters.
Why it matters
The longlist is the earliest reliable map of the autumn fiction season: booksellers plan displays around it, and thirteen titles drawn from 163 submissions give readers a curated slice of the year's English-language fiction before the shortlist narrows the field. For publishers and authors on the list, the next three months are a sales window that no other publicity can quite replicate.
For more context, read Women's Prize for Fiction Goes to Virginia Evans.
For more context, read How a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Actually Gets Decided.
For more context, read PEN/Faulkner Award Goes to Mahreen Sohail.