Women's Prize for Fiction 2023 Longlist Due to be Announced

The Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the most prestigious worldwide literary awards. Running since 1996, it celebrates stories written by women across the globe. This year’s longlisted candidates are due to be revealed on the 7^th of March, but whose names can we expect to see there? Here are my top three picks for nomination this year.

Maggie O’Farrell seems an obvious pick, with her latest novel Marriage Portrait released in September last year. Set in renaissance-era Italy, the novel offers up a refreshingly feminist view of a woman’s life in 16^th century court, and is indubitably reminiscent of Hamnet (a re-imagining of Hamlet which won O'Farrell the prize in 2020). Given that Marriage Portrait was nominated for Best Historical Fiction in the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards (as Hamnet was in 2020), it looks to be a strong candidate for the Women’s prize this year.

Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is another likely candidate, with the novel gaining massive popularity across Booktok, BookTube, and Bookstagram alike. An emotional illustration of the intricacies of friendship and romance, it was declared winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards prize for Best Fiction in 2022, whilst John Green, bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars, also declared it ‘one of the best books [he’s] ever read’.

Finally, talk of award-winning fiction can't overlook Jodi Picoult, whose new release Mad Honey (co-written with Jennifer Finney Boylan) stands as yet another tense, thought-provoking drama from the New York Times bestselling author. Like her previous novels A Spark of Light and Small Great Things, Mad Honey is a socially provocative reflection of truth and family, which delves deep into themes of relationships and connection. It was also nominated for Best Fiction in the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards, and has received rave reviews from The Independent and The Washington Post.

Which authors are you expecting to see on the list?