The Booker Prize, the prestigious U.K. literary award for fiction, has announced its 2024 judges.
Edmund de Waal will chair the judging panel for next year’s award. The acclaimed author and ceramic artist is known for nonfiction books including The Hare With Amber Eyes, The White Road, and Letters to Camondo.
Two other authors will join de Waal on the panel: Sara Collins, author of the novel The Confessions of Frannie Langton, and Yiyun Li, whose books include A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Where Reasons End, and Wednesday’s Child.
The panel is rounded out by Justine Jordan, the fiction editor of the Guardian, and Nitin Sawhney, the composer, musician, and DJ.
“The great ambition of the Booker Prize is to explore contemporary fiction without preconceptions, and I am so privileged to be sharing my year of reading with such a gloriously distinguished and vigorous group of fellow explorers,” de Waal said in a statement. “I am looking forward to being part of the best book club ever.”
Gaby Wood, CEO of the Booker Prize Foundation, praised the judges as “perceptive readers, creative thinkers, seasoned collaborators.”
“If the purpose of literature is, in part, to bridge a gap—to allow us to see the world from another point of view and to draw people together—then the 2024 panel couldn’t be better equipped to recommend works to readers that will get them thinking and talking,” Wood added.
The longlist for next year’s Booker Prize will be released in July; a shortlist will follow in September. The winner of the award will be announced at a ceremony in November.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
