You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Books by Elodie Harper, Ruth Ozeki and Jennifer Saint are among the 12 titles longlisted by Goldboro Books for its 2022 Glass Bell award for contemporary fiction.
Harper made the list with The Wolf Den (Apollo), while Saint’s Ariadne (Wildfire) is also up for the prize. Ozeki has made the list with The Book of Form and Emptiness (Canongate)
Debut authors make up just under half of the longlist, with Zakya Dalia Harris listed for The Other Black Girl (Bloomsbury), Anna Bailey for Tall Bones (Doubleday) and Virginia Feito for Mrs March.
Hafsa Zayyan, winner of the #Merky Books New Writers Prize with We Are All Birds of Uganda, is also on the longlist alongside Robert Jones Jr for The Prophets (rivverun), Lucy Holland’s Sisterstong (Macmillan), Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Daughters of Night (Mantle) and Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn (Hodder & Stoughton).
The sole fantasy novel on the 2022 Glass Bell longlist is Threadneedle by Cari Thomas (HarperVoyager), which draws readers into a magical city nestled within the boroughs of London.
David Headley, Goldsboro Books co-founder and m.d, said: “Every year, we are champing at the bit to get together and discuss our favourite books published in the previous year. Once again, the longlist is incredibly exciting and without one weak link. Every year, the judging process gets more difficult as the standard of publishing continues to grow - this year might be our trickiest yet.”
The Glass Bell Award is judged by Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books. It rewards storytelling in all genres and is awarded annually to “a compelling novel with brilliant characterisation and a distinct voice that is confidently written and assuredly realised”.
A shortlist of six will be announced on 28th July, with the winner, who receives £2,000 and a handmade glass bell, revealed on 8th September.
Last year, debut author Clare Whitfield was announced as the fifth winner of the prize for her historical thriller People of Abandoned Character (Head of Zeus).