Meena Kandasamy, Arundhati Roy in UK prize longlist

Noted Indian writers Meena Kandasamy and Arundhati Roy have been longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction that celebrates women’s creativity across the world, the organisers announced on Thursday.

Kandasamy has been included for her acclaimed book, ‘When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife’, while Roy makes it to the 16-member longlist for her second novel, ‘The Ministry of Utmost Happiness’.

Now in its 23rd year, the prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women in English from throughout the world. The judges for the 2018 prize are: Sarah Sands, Anita Anand, Katy Brand, Catherine Mayer and Imogen Stubbs.

Sands, chair of the judges panel said, “What is striking about the list, apart from the wealth of talent, is that women writers refuse to be pigeon-holed. We have searing social realism, adventure, comedy, poetic truths, ingenious plots and unforgettable characters. Women of the world are a literary force to be reckoned with.”

The longlist includes new and well-established writers and a range of genres; it features two previously longlisted authors and one previously shortlisted author. There are six first novels on the list. The shortlist will be announced on April 23 and the prize on June 6.

Set up in 1996, the prize is awarded for the best full-length novel of the year written by a woman and published in the UK between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018. Any woman writing in English – whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter – is eligible.

The longlist announcement coinciding with International Women’s Day 2018 is H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker, The Idiot by Elif Batuman, Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon, Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig Manhattan, Beach by Jennifer Egan, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar, Sight by Jessie Greengrass, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy, Elmet by Fiona Mozley, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt, A Boy in Winter by Rachel Seiffert, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal, Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.

The winner will receive an anonymously endowed cheque of £30,000 and a limited edition bronze figurine known as a ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven.