The Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly known as the Bailey’s Prize) has announced its shortlist for 2023.
The prize celebrates literary fiction published by female authors in the UK between the 1st of April to the 31st of March in any given year (though authors themselves do not have to be from the UK, nor do the books have to be set here). It was designed to give female authors a stronger step-up in the publishing world.
2023’s shortlist has been decided by five women from diverse backgrounds, including Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. The shortlisted authors are a conglomeration of previous winners (Maggie O’Farrell, Barbara Kingsolver) and first-timers. The books are:
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris
Pod by Laline Paull
Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The shortlist spans an array of literary locations: ranging from Jamaica, Italy, the Indian Ocean, former Yugoslavia, Virginia and Ireland. They also offer some highly intriguing premises: Pod is set underwater with a character cast of sea mammals, and Demon Copperhead is a reinvention of Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield set in America’s opioid crisis. It was praised by The Guardian for combining Kingsolver’s social-justice-driven worldview with Dickens’s own social criticism.
If you are eager to join the public conversation about the books, The Student recommends literary YouTubers Leena Norms and Jen Campbell, both of whom frequently rank and review shortlists of literary prizes and have a long history of analysing the Women’s Prize. Leena has read all the longlisted books and reviewed them in a video here, along with her prior shortlist predictions.
The Women’s Prize for Fiction winner is announced on the 14th of June.
Image “barbara kingsolver and coffee at pix” by cafemama is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.