Diverse imaginations

The longlist for Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022 was announced on International Women’s Day. It comprises sixteen incredible books, featuring both debut and acclaimed writers; which span the globe in their settings, from Trinidad, Cyprus and a dystopian England, to Cape Cod, Buchenwald, and Vietnam.

Founded in 1996, the prize is one of the UK’s most prestigious literary awards, showcasing the versatility and excellence of novels written by women from around the world.

There are five British authors, six Americans, two New Zealanders, one Turkish-British, one American-Canadian, and one Trinidadian writer on the longlist. Alongside four debut novelists, five authors have been previously longlisted.

Author Mary Ann is joined on the judging panel by Lorraine Candy, award-winning journalist and editor; Dorothy Koomson, global bestselling novelist, journalist and podcaster; Anita Sethi, award-winning author and literary journalist; and Pandora Sykes, journalist, broadcaster and author.

‘Creatures of Passage’ by Morowa Yejidé, published by Jacaranda Books - With echoes of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Yejidé’s novel explores a forgotten quadrant of Washington, DC, and the ghosts that haunt it.

‘Great Circle’ by Maggie Shipstead - The unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost: an “epic trip—through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywood—and you’ll relish every minute.

‘The Island of Missing Trees’ by Elif Shafak - In The Island of Missing Trees, prizewinning author Elif Shafak brings us a rich, magical tale of belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature, and, finally, renewal.

This One Sky Day’ by Leone Ross - Following two star-crossed lovers finding their way back to one another over a single day, this novel is set on a fictional Caribbean archipelago called Popisho. A sensual meditation on the nature of love and addiction, it is also a dazzling, funny and incisive disquisition on post-colonial politics.

‘The Book of Form and Emptiness’ by Ruth Ozeki -This A brilliantly inventive new novel from the Booker Prize-finalist Ruth Ozeki finds a mother and son grappling with the profound loss of the patriarch of the family, who dies in a freak accident. While the mother’s anguish expresses itself in a growing hoarding problem, her son hears inanimate objects talking to him, and these voices eventually overwhelm in a cacophony that drowns out his own.

‘The Exhibitionist’ by Charlotte Mendelson - This is a dazzling exploration of art, sacrifice, toxic family politics, queer desire, and personal freedom.

‘Sorrow and Bliss’ by Meg Mason - The internationally bestselling, compulsively readable novel—spiky, sharp, intriguingly dark, and tender—that combines the psychological insight of Sally Rooney with the sharp humor of Nina Stibbe and the emotional resonance of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

'Build Your House Around My Body’ by Violet Kupersmith - Spanning more than fifty years of Vietnamese history and barreling toward an unforgettable conclusion, this is a time-traveling, heart-pounding, border-crossing fever dream of a novel that will haunt you long after the last page.

‘The Sentence’ by Louise Erdrich - Poignant and witty, The Sentence is Edrich’s 23rd novel and combines contemporary events with a ghost story set in a Minneapolis bookshop.

‘Flamingo’ by Rachel Elliott - Flamingo is a novel about the power of love, welcome and acceptance. It's a celebration of kindness, of tenderness. Set in 2018 and the '80s, it's a song for the broken-hearted and the big-hearted and is, ultimately, a novel grown from gratitude and a book full of wild hope.

‘The Paper Palace’ by Miranda Cowley Heller - A story of summer, secrets, love, and lies: in the course of a singular day on Cape Cod, one woman must make a life-changing decision that has been brewing for decades.

‘Remote Sympathy’ by Catherine Chidgey - Set in Buchenwald concentration camp, Remote Sympathy is a bleak and harrowing WWII historical fiction novel. It follows three different characters, all of which are on different sides of German nazi atrocities.

‘Careless’ by Kirsty Capes - Written with tremendous empathy and compassion, Capes’s electrifying debut charts the coming-of-age of Bess – teenage and living on the edge of society – and what it means to be young and neglected in twenty-first century Britain.

‘Salt Lick’ by Lulu Allison - Bold, undaunted and richly imagined, Allison’s dystopian vision of an England filled with deserted countryside and people both seeking the truth and fleeing from it resounds with scenes and sentiments all too recognisable to us today.

‘The Bread the Devil Knead’ by Lisa Allen-Agostini - Set against a Trinidadian backdrop, Allen-Agostini’s debut novel has a blazing feminist message and tells the story of Alethea Lopez, an unforgettable woman nearing 40 who is at the start of a new journey freeing herself from a violent and abusive relationship.

‘The Final Revival of Opal & Nev’ by Dawnie Walton – An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour.

The judging panel will now whittle these sixteen books down to a shortlist of just six novels, announced on April 27th. The winner of the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced on Wednesday 15th June.