TheBooker Prize, formerly theBooker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and theMan Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigiousliterary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, which was published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives£50,000, as well as international publicity that usually leads to a significant sales boost.[1] When the prize was created, only novels written byCommonwealth, Irish and South African (and later Zimbabwean) citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014, eligibility was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial.[2][3]
A five-person panel consisting of authors, publishers and journalists, as well as politicians, actors, artists and musicians,[4] is appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation each year to choose the winning book.[5][6]Gaby Wood has been the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation since 2015.[7][8][9]
A high-profile literary award inBritish culture, the Booker Prize is greeted with anticipation and fanfare around the world.[10] Literary critics have noted that it is a mark of distinction for authors to be selected for inclusion in theshortlist or to be nominated for the "longlist".[1]
A sister prize, theInternational Booker Prize, is awarded for a work of fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Unlike the Booker Prize, short story collections are eligible for the International Booker Prize. The £50,000 prize money is split evenly between the author and translator of the winning book.[11] A third award, theChildren's Booker Prize, was launched in 2025, with the inaugural winner to be announced in 2027.[12]
The prize was established as the "Booker Prize for Fiction" after the companyBooker, McConnell Ltd began sponsoring the event in 1969;[13] it became commonly known as the "Booker Prize" or the "Booker".Jock Campbell,Charles Tyrrell andTom Maschler were instrumental in establishing the prize.
When administration of the prize was transferred to the Booker Prize Foundation in 2002, the title sponsor became the investment companyMan Group, which opted to retain "Booker" as part of the official title of the prize. The foundation is an independent registered charity funded by the entire profits of Booker Prize Trading Ltd, of which it is the sole shareholder.[14] The prize money awarded with the Booker Prize was originally £5,000.[15] It doubled in 1978 to £10,000 and was subsequently raised to £50,000 in 2002 under the sponsorship of the Man Group,[15] making it one of theworld's richest literary prizes.[citation needed] Each of the shortlisted authors receives £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book.[15]
The original Booker Prize trophy was designed by the artistJan Pieńkowski[16] and the design was revived for the 2023 prize.
The rules of the Booker changed in 1971; previously, it had been given retrospectively, to books published in the year prior to each award. In 1971, eligibility was changed to make the year of a novel's publication the same as the year of the award, which was made in November; in effect, this meant that books published in 1970 were not considered for the Booker in either year.[19] Forty years later, the Booker Prize Foundation announced in January 2010 the creation of a special award called the "Lost Man Booker Prize", with the winner chosen from a longlist of 22 novels published in 1970.[20] The prize was won byJ. G. Farrell forTroubles, though the author had died in 1979.
In 1972, winning writerJohn Berger, known for hisMarxist worldview, protested during his acceptance speech against Booker McConnell. He blamed Booker's 130 years of sugar production in the Caribbean for the region's modern poverty.[21][22] Berger donated half of his £5,000 prize to theBritish Black Panther movement, because it had a socialist and revolutionary perspective in agreement with his own.[23][21][13][24]
In 1980,Anthony Burgess, writer ofEarthly Powers, refused to attend the ceremony unless it was confirmed to him in advance whether he had won.[13] His was one of two books considered likely to win, the other beingRites of Passage byWilliam Golding. The judges decided only 30 minutes before the ceremony, giving the prize to Golding. Both novels had been seen as favourites to win leading up to the prize, and the dramatic "literary battle" between two senior writers made front-page news.[13][25]
In 1981, nomineeJohn Banville wrote a letter toThe Guardian requesting that the prize be given to him so that he could use the money to buy every copy of the longlisted books in Ireland and donate them to libraries, "thus ensuring that the books not only are bought but also read – surely a unique occurrence".[13][27] The prize was eventually won bySalman Rushdie'sMidnight's Children.
Judging for the 1983 award produced a draw betweenJ. M. Coetzee'sLife & Times of Michael K andSalman Rushdie'sShame, leaving chair of judgesFay Weldon to choose between the two. According to Stephen Moss inThe Guardian, "Her arm was bent and she chose Rushdie", only to change her mind as the result was being phoned through.[28] At the award ceremony,Fay Weldon used her speech to attack the assembled publishers, accusing them of exploiting and undervaluing authors. "I will ask you if in your dealings with authors you are really being fair, and honourable, and right? Or merely getting away with what you can? If you are not careful, you will kill the goose that lays your golden eggs."[29]
In 1992, the jury split the prize betweenMichael Ondaatje'sThe English Patient andBarry Unsworth'sSacred Hunger. This prompted the foundation to draw up a rule that made it mandatory for the appointed jury to make the award to just a single author/book.
The choice ofJames Kelman's bookHow Late It Was, How Late as 1994 Booker Prize winner proved to be one of the most controversial in the award's history.[30] RabbiJulia Neuberger, one of the judges, declared it "a disgrace" and left the event, later deeming the book to be "crap";WHSmith's marketing manager called the award "an embarrassment to the whole book trade";Waterstones inGlasgow sold a mere 13 copies of Kelman's book the following week.[31] In 1994,The Guardian's literary editorRichard Gott, citing the lack of objective criteria and the exclusion of American authors, described the prize as "a significant and dangerous iceberg in the sea of British culture that serves as a symbol of its current malaise".[13][32]
In 1996,A. L. Kennedy served as a judge; in 2001, she called the prize "a pile of crooked nonsense" with the winner determined by "who knows who, who's sleeping with who, who's selling drugs to who, who's married to who, whose turn it is".[28]
In 1997, the decision to awardArundhati Roy'sThe God of Small Things proved controversial.Carmen Callil, chair of the previous year's Booker judges, called it an "execrable" book and said on television that it should not even have been on the shortlist. Booker Prize chairmanMartyn Goff said Roy won because nobody objected, following the rejection by the judges ofBernard MacLaverty's shortlisted book due to their dismissal of him as "a wonderful short-story writer and thatGrace Notes was three short stories strung together".[33]
Before 2001, each year's longlist of nominees was not publicly revealed.[34] From 2001, the longlisted novels started to be published each year, and in 2007 the number of nominees was capped at 12 or 13 each year.[15]
John Sutherland, who was a judge for the 1999 prize, was reported as saying in 2001:
There is a well-established London literary community.Rushdie doesn't get shortlisted now because he has attacked that community. That is not a good game plan if you want to win the Booker.Norman Mailer has found the same thing in the US – you have to "be a citizen" if you want to win prizes. The real scandal is that [Martin]Amis has never won the prize. In fact, he has only been shortlisted once and that was forTime's Arrow, which was not one of his strongest books. That really is suspicious. He pissed people off withDead Babies and that gets lodged in the culture. There is also the feeling that he has always looked towards America.[28]
In 2001,Peter Carey become the first author to win the Booker Prize for a second time.[35] Carey was the first of four writers to have won the Booker Prize twice, the others beingJ. M. Coetzee,Hilary Mantel, andMargaret Atwood.
The Booker Prize created a permanent home[when?] for the archives from 1968 to present atOxford Brookes University Library. The Archive, which encompasses the administrative history of the Prize from 1968 to date, collects together a diverse range of material, including correspondence, publicity material, copies of both the Longlists and the Shortlists, minutes of meetings, photographs and material relating to the awards dinner (letters of invitation, guest lists, seating plans). Embargoes of ten or twenty years apply to certain categories of material; examples include all material relating to the judging process and the Longlist prior to 2002.[36]
Between 2005 and 2008, the Booker Prize alternated between writers from Ireland and India. "Outsider"John Banville began this trend in 2005 when his novelThe Sea was selected as a surprise winner:[37]Boyd Tonkin, literary editor ofThe Independent, famously condemned it as "possibly the most perverse decision in the history of the award" and rival novelistTibor Fischer poured scorn on Banville's victory.[38]Kiran Desai of India won in 2006.Anne Enright's 2007 victory came about due to a jury split overIan McEwan's novelOn Chesil Beach. The following year it was India's turn again, withAravind Adiga narrowly defeating Enright's fellow IrishmanSebastian Barry.[39]
2015 logo of the then Man Booker Prize
Historically, the winner of the Booker Prize was required to be a citizen of theCommonwealth of Nations, theRepublic of Ireland, orZimbabwe. It was announced on 18 September 2013 that future Booker Prize awards would consider authors from anywhere in the world, so long as their work was inEnglish and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.[40] This change proved controversial in literary circles. Former winnerA. S. Byatt and former judgeJohn Mullan said the prize risked diluting its identity, whereas former judge A. L. Kennedy welcomed the change.[2][3][41] Following this expansion, the first winner not from the Commonwealth, Ireland, or Zimbabwe was AmericanPaul Beatty in 2016. Another American,George Saunders, won the following year.[42] In 2018, publishers sought to reverse the change, arguing that the inclusion of American writers would lead to homogenisation, reducing diversity and opportunities everywhere, including in America, to learn about "great books that haven't already been widely heralded".[41]
Man Group announced in early 2019 that the year's prize would be the last of eighteen under their sponsorship.[43] A new sponsor,Crankstart – acharitable foundation run bySir Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman – then announced it would sponsor the award for five years, with the option to renew for another five years. The award title was changed to simply "The Booker Prize".[44][45]
In 2019, despite having been unequivocally warned against doing so, the foundation's jury – under the chairPeter Florence – split the prize, awarding it to two authors, in breach of a rule established in 1993. Florence justified the decision, saying: "We came down to a discussion with the director of the Booker Prize about the rules. And we were told quite firmly that the rules state that you can only have one winner ... and as we have managed the jury all the way through on the principle of consensus, our consensus was that it was our decision to flout the rules and divide this year's prize to celebrate two winners."[46] The two were British writerBernardine Evaristo for her novelGirl, Woman, Other and Canadian writerMargaret Atwood forThe Testaments. Evaristo's win marked the first time the Booker had been awarded to a black woman, while Atwood's win, at 79, made her the oldest winner.[47][48] Atwood had also previously won the prize in 2000.
In 2020, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the annual award ceremony was replaced with a livestream from theRoundhouse in London, without the shortlisted authors in attendance. The winner wasDouglas Stuart for his debut novelShuggie Bain, which had been rejected by more than 30 publishers.[49]
2021's small-scale ceremony, once again impacted by COVID-19, saw South African writerDamon Galgut, who had been shortlisted in 2003 and 2010, win the prize forThe Promise.
In 2023, for the first time, the shortlist featured three writers named Paul[51] (Paul Lynch,Paul Murray andPaul Harding). The prize was won by Irish writer Paul Lynch for his novelProphet Song. In the media, reaction was mixed. InThe Guardian, Justine Jordan wrote that "This is a novel written to jolt the reader awake to truths we mostly cannot bear to admit",[52] while inThe Daily Telegraph, Cal Revely-Calder wrote thatProphet Song is "political fiction at its laziest" and "the weak link in a strong shortlist".[53]
The 2024 prize was won bySamantha Harvey forOrbital, the first book set in space to win the prize and, at 136 pages, the second shortest book to win the Booker[54] afterPenelope Fitzgerald'sOffshore. Harvey was also the first woman to win the Booker since 2019.[55] Since winning the Booker,Orbital became a UK bestseller, selling more than 20,000 print copies in the UK in the week following its win, making it the fastest selling winner of the Booker Prize since records began.[56]
The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the appointment of a panel of five judges, which changes each year.Gaby Wood, the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, chooses the judges in consultation with an advisory committee made up of senior figures from the UK publishing industry. On rare occasions a judge may be selected a second time. Judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics, and public figures.
Unlike some other literary prizes, each judge is expected to read all of the books that have been submitted. In 2023, the judges read 163 books over seven months.[57] After doing so, they select a longlist of 12 or 13 titles (the "Booker Dozen"), before each reading those books for a second time. They then select a shortlist of six titles, and read the six books a third time before selecting a winner.
The Booker judging process and the very concept of a "best book" being chosen by a small number of literary insiders is controversial for many.The Guardian introduced the "Not the Booker Prize" voted for by readers partly as a reaction to this.[58] AuthorAmit Chaudhuri wrote: "The idea that a 'book of the year' can be assessed annually by a bunch of people – judges who have to read almost a book a day – is absurd, as is the idea that this is any way of honouring a writer."[59]
The authorJulian Barnes once dismissed the prize as "posh bingo"[60] for the apparently arbitrary way winners are selected. On winning the prize in 2011 he joked that he had revised his opinion, telling reporters that he had realised "the judges are the wisest heads in literary Christendom".
For many years, the winner was announced at a formal, black-tie dinner in London'sGuildhall in early October. However, in 2020, withCOVID-19 pandemic restrictions in place, the winner ceremony was broadcast in November fromthe Roundhouse, in partnership with theBBC.[61] The ceremony returned to the Roundhouse for a more casual in-person ceremony in 2022, before moving toOld Billingsgate in London in 2023 and 2024.
In 1971, the nature of the prize was changed so that it was awarded to novels published in that year instead of in the previous year; therefore, no novel published in 1970 could win the Booker Prize. This was rectified in 2010 by the awarding of the "Lost Man Booker Prize" toJ. G. Farrell'sTroubles.[112]
In 1993, a special Booker of Bookers prize was awarded to mark the prize's 25th anniversary. Three previous judges of the award,Malcolm Bradbury, David Holloway and W. L. Webb, met and choseSalman Rushdie'sMidnight's Children, the 1981 winner, as "the best novel out of all the winners".[113]
In 2018, to celebrate the 50th anniversary, the Golden Man Booker was awarded. One book from each decade was selected by a panel of judges: Naipaul'sIn a Free State (the 1971 winner), Lively'sMoon Tiger (1987), Ondaatje'sThe English Patient (1992), Mantel'sWolf Hall (2009) and Saunders'sLincoln in the Bardo (2017). The winner, by popular vote, wasThe English Patient.[116]
Since 2014, each publisher's imprint may submit a number of titles based on their longlisting history (previously they could submit two). Non-longlisted publishers can submit one title, publishers with one or two longlisted books in the previous five years can submit two, publishers with three or four longlisted books are allowed three submissions, and publishers with five or more longlisted books can have four submissions.
In addition, previous winners of the prize are automatically considered if they enter new titles. Books may also be called in: publishers can make written representations to the judges to consider titles in addition to those already entered. In the 21st century the average number of books considered by the judges has been approximately 130.[117][40]
A separate prize for which any living writer in the world may qualify, theMan Booker International Prize, was inaugurated in 2005. Until 2015, it was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. In 2016, the award was significantly reconfigured, and is now given annually to a single book in Englishtranslation, with a £50,000 prize for the winning title, shared equally between author and translator. The award has been known as the International Booker Prize since the Man Group ended its association with the prizes in 2019.
A Russian version of the Booker Prize was created in 1992 called theBooker-Open Russia Literary Prize, also known as the Russian Booker Prize. In 2007, Man Group plc established theMan Asian Literary Prize, an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year.
^Hoover, Bob (10 February 2008)."'Gathering' storm clears for prize winner Enright".Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved10 February 2008.In America, literary prizes are greeted with the same enthusiasm as a low Steelers draft choice. Not so in the British Isles, where the $98,000 Man Booker Fiction Prize can even push Amy Winehouse off the front page – at least for a day. The atmosphere around the award approaches sports-championship proportions, with London bookies posting the ever-changing odds on the nominees. Then, in October when the winner is announced live on the BBC TV evening news, somebody always gets ticked off.
^"Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro (Chatto & Windus, November)".The Guardian. 13 July 2012. Retrieved13 July 2012.As the only writer to sneak on to the Booker shortlist for a collection of short stories (withThe Beggar Maid in 1980), Alice Munro easily deserves to end our list of the year's best fiction.
