Novels by Isabella Hammad and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ vying for the 10k Encore Award

Books by Isabella Hammad and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ have been shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s (RSL) 2024 Encore Award, which celebrates the “difficult second novel” that follows an author’s literary debut.

The annual prize awards £10,000 to the author of the best second novel of the year, and each of the other four authors featured on the shortlist are awarded £500. 

This year’s judges are Fergal Keane, Malika Booker and Maura Dooley, who have shortlisted Hammad’s “profound” novel Enter Ghost (Vintage), which they praised for exploring the “humanising importance of art in a world overthrown by conflict”. Meanwhile, Adébáyọ̀ is on the shortlist with A Spell of Good Things (Canongate), which the judges hailed as “a superb portrayal of two families living in modern Nigeria”.

Hammad and Adébáyọ̀ are joined on the list by A K Blakemore, shortlisted for her “luscious poetic fiction” book, The Glutton (Granta), and Úna Mannion, vying for the prize with her “complex, lyrical, confident” novel Tell Me What I Am (Faber and Faber). Megan Nolan is also shortlisted this year for Ordinary Human Failings (Penguin), which the judges commended for its “precise” and “superb” characterisation.

Previous winners include Sally Rooney, Ali Smith and Colm Tóibín, and last year’s prize went to Daisy Hildyard for Emergency (Fitzcarraldo Editions).