Booker Prize

The Booker Prize is widely regarded as the English-speaking world's most prestigious literary award, presented annually since 1969 to the best original novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Founded with support from the Booker McConnell company and now administered by the Booker Prize Foundation, the prize carries a £50,000 award and has historically transformed the careers and international readerships of its winners. Originally open only to citizens of the United Kingdom, Commonwealth nations, and the Republic of Ireland, the prize expanded its eligibility rules in 2014 to include any novel written in English and published in Britain or Ireland, regardless of the author's nationality. This controversial change opened the competition to American authors and others previously excluded, leading to wins by writers like Paul Beatty and George Saunders. The prize process begins with a longlist announced in late July, followed by a shortlist of six books in September, and a winner announced at a gala dinner in London in October. The six shortlisted authors each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. The winner is decided by an annually appointed jury of five, typically drawn from literature, academia, and public life. A single book has won twice—Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012), making her the only author to win twice. The Booker Prize has a companion award, the International Booker Prize (formerly the Man Booker International Prize), which since 2016 has been awarded annually to a single book translated into English from any language. The two prizes together make up the Booker Prizes brand, administered by the Booker Prize Foundation.