Previous winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James lead Booker prize longlist
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- Booker Prize Foundation named its 13-novel longlist for 2026 on Tuesday, selected from 163 submitted books — all written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026.
- Douglas Stuart (2020 winner for Shuggie Bain) and Marlon James (2015 winner for A Brief History of Seven Killings) both made the longlist, joining JM Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood as the only authors to have won twice if either wins again.
- Elizabeth Strout earned her third Booker nomination for The Things We Never Say, her 11th novel, which the judges said 'reckons with Trump's America' — she was previously longlisted in 2016 and shortlisted in 2022.
- Mary Beard, the classicist and broadcaster, chairs the 2026 judging panel, joined by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, writer Raymond Antrobus, novelist Patricia Lockwood, and Guardian journalist Rebecca Liu — with Cocker telling judges he was 'the least formally qualified person on this jury'.
- The longlist features 10 first-time longlistees and three debut novelists: Kenan Orhan, Rebecca Perry, and 28-year-old Djamel White, the youngest on the list — while 81-year-old M John Harrison, longlisted for The End of Everything, would surpass Atwood (79 in 2019) as the prize's oldest ever recipient.
- Chloe Aridjis could become the first Booker winner of Mexican heritage with The Shadow of the Object, while debut novelist Kenan Orhan could become the first of Turkish heritage with The Renovation.
- The shortlist will be announced at London's Southbank Centre on September 22, with the winner named at a ceremony on November 9; last year's winner was David Szalay's Flesh.
Why it matters: In a prize where only four authors — Coetzee, Carey, Mantel and Atwood — have ever won twice, the simultaneous return of Marlon James and Douglas Stuart sets up a genuine shot at a rare two-time winner, while the longlist simultaneously positions Chloe Aridjis and Kenan Orhan as potential first Mexican- and Turkish-heritage Booker winners.
