Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017 Longlist Predictions

Literary Prizes / Sunday, March 5th, 2017

The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction is one of the literary prizes  thatI look forward to the most.  It is a prestigious UK  prize, founded in 1996, that honors great women writers from all over the world. Wednesday, March 8th the Baileys Women’s Prize Longlist will be announced.  Traditionally the longlist contains 20 choices however this year it may contain less than that.  Regardless of the amount decided on, the longlist should be extremely competitive.  There have been a plethora of excellent novels from well-known powerhouses as well as debut novelists in the period from April 1, 2016  to March 31, 2017 (of course all novels have to be published in the UK during this period to be eligible).  The list is long and illustrious.  I can’t say I’ve read enough of the books that I think would fit the prize’s longlist this year, but I believe I have a pretty good idea of what might wind up on it.

So here are my predictions starting with the books that I’ve read:

 

From the books I haven’t read yet but looking forward to:

 

And finally for the titles I don’t plan on reading that could make it on the list:

 

Those are my predictions but I could be totally wrong. There are really so many great books by women out there.  So what are your predictions for the Baileys Women’s Prize Longlist 2017?  Do you follow this prize or are you anti-literary prizes?

 

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9 Replies to “Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017 Longlist Predictions”

  1. Homegoing is my pick and absolute favourite (I thought it was a stunning read), not that I’ve read many others, thankfully I was given that for my birthday and I’ll be reading The Essex Serpent since I was given that one as well.

    I think the Turkish writer Elif Shafak might make it onto the list with Three Daughters of Eve (I’m reading that now) and Ali Smith for sure even though I’ve not read any of her books.

    Looking forward to finding out anyway!

      1. Yes, I think 12 is better, interestingly Shafak is on the judging panel for the Man Booker International this year, she probably won’t be nominated for that since she often writes her manuscripts in English though in the beginning she would write in Turkish I think. It’s an interesting novel and particularly as it kind of addresses the one thing I thought missing from Claire Fuller’s Swimming Lessons. That novel was about a woman who got together with her uni professor and then had kids and he kind of lost interest and she sacrificed her career, but the author doesn’t explore the fact that she’s a foreigner, which I think adds a whole other dimension. Shafak’s novel explores that universe of the foreign student, living away from their family and cultural conditioning, and is quite a philosophical novel, well she’s a Rumi scholar, so not surprising. I hope her book gets nominated. But Homegoing, for me is in a complete league of its own. Far out incredible. I know I still have to read Healing, but did you read my review of Homegoing?

  2. This is my favorite literary prize and I so look forward to the longlist, shortlist and winner. Since I am in the US I usually do not predict which books will be on the list as this list goes by UK publication dates. So glad it is that time of the year again in a few days. I like your prediction list.

  4. I’ve made it a project to read all the shortlisted titles, although at the current rate, there are more books added by the Prize than read by me. 🙂 I recently listened to Another Brooklyn and liked it. I just wish it had been longer. The writing was so lyrical; I wanted to keep listening to it.

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