The Women’s Prize for Fiction announced its shortlist Wednesday morning, with books by Maggie Shipstead, Ruth Ozeki, and Louise Erdrich among those in contention for the annual U.K. literary award.
Shipstead was named a finalist for Great Circle, her article about a mid-20th century daredevil aviator Marian Graves, and an actor in the present day who’s portraying her in a movie. The book was previously a finalist for the Booker Prize.
Ozeki made the shortlist for The Book of Form and Emptiness, about a teenage boy who starts to hear voices after the death of his father, while Erdrich was named a finalist for The Sentence, her novel about a reader who haunts a bookstore after her death.
Elif Shafak landed on the shortlist for her Cyprus-set The Island of Missing Trees, a recent pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, while Meg Mason was named a finalist for her debut comic novel, Sorrow and Bliss.
Rounding out the shortlist was Lisa Allen-Agostini for The Bread the Devil Knead, the first adult novel from the young adult writer and stand-up comedian from Trinidad and Tobago.
“We were blessed with an extraordinarily high quality of submissions this year, which made whittling down the longlist from 16 to six particularly difficult,” said Mary Ann Sieghart, who chaired this year’s judging panel.
The winner of the prize will be announced on June 15.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
