Booker Prize 2026 longlist: Marlon James, Douglas Stuart among 13 semifinalists

Booker Prize winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart are in the running for the 2026 edition of the prestigious fiction award.

Published — July 29, 2026 10:18 am IST | LONDON

Judges read 163 novels to come up with the 13 semifinalists announced Tuesday (July 28, 2026) for the £50,000 ($66,000) Booker Prize, a list described by historian Mary Beard, head of the judging panel, as literary “dynamite.”

The list includes:

• Marlon James — “The Disappearers,” about a group of gay men in a hostile 1980s Jamaica
• Douglas Stuart — “John of John,” a story of father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island
• Elizabeth Strout — “The Things We Never Say,” a heartfelt small-town tale

James won the Booker in 2015 for “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” and Stuart won in 2020 for “Shuggie Bain.” Strout’s “Oh William!” was a finalist in 2022. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009 for “Olive Kitteridge.”

They sit alongside lesser-known names on a Booker longlist that includes authors with roots in Britain, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey and the United States.

Debut Authors

Three of those on the list are debut authors:

• Kenan Orhan (Turkish-American) — “The Renovation,” a family history story
• Rebecca Perry (British) — “May We Feed the King,” a Medieval-to-modern tale
• Djamel White (Ireland) — “All Them Dogs,” a thriller set in the Dublin underworld

White, at 28, is the youngest author in the running. The oldest is 81-year-old M. John Harrison, whose postapocalyptic tale “The End of Everything” is a rare science fiction novel to make the Booker list.

Other Contenders

• “The Shadow of the Object” by Chloe Aridjis
• “Black Bag” by Luke Kennard
• “The Vivisectors” by Missouri Williams
• “Switzy” by Emma Cline
• “Helen of Nowhere” by Makenna Goodman
• “The Palm House” by Gwendoline Riley

Judges’ Perspective

Beard said the five jurors, who include Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and American novelist Patricia Lockwood, tried to look beyond the idea of a typical Booker winner — “slightly serious, about to be classic.” Instead they chose novels that are “trying to expand the boundaries of how we can think about ourselves in completely different ways.”

“Sometimes they’re using humor, sometimes it’s pathos, sometimes there’s shock value,” Beard said. “They’re risk-takers. They are dynamite. They say ‘Come on, try seeing it a different way.’”

About the Prize

Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers and is open to novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland. Last year’s winner was “Flesh” by Hungarian-British writer David Szalay.

The judges will announce six finalists on September 22, and the winner will be revealed November 9 at a ceremony in London.