Man Booker Prize 2019 opens for entries

The submissions for the 2019 Man Booker Prize are now open. 

The award goes to a long-form work of fiction, published in the UK and Ireland, with last year’s going to Anna Burns’ Milkman (Faber) leading to a significant spike in sales. 

Each shortlisted author receives £2,500 and a designer bound copy of his or her book with the winner scooping a further £50,000. The work must be published in the UK or Ireland between 1st October 2018 and 30th September 2019. The form should be sent to Four Colman Getty by 8th March and eight copies of each work by 14th June 2019, with more details on submission here.

It was revealed last month that the judging panel for 2019 will be chaired by Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, with fellow judges including former fiction publisher and editor Liz Calder, novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch and pianist and composer Joanna MacGregor. The ‘Booker Dozen’, a longlist of 12 or 13 books will be announced in July and the shortlist of six books in September. The winner of the prize, sponsored by Man Group, will be announced in October.

Last year the prize was opened up to Irish publishers for the first time and in September some of the judges’ remarks attracted controversy such as suggestions that submissions “needed more editing”.