Booker prize judges have named their 2026 longlist, with previous winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James both featuring alongside three-time nominee Elizabeth Strout. The 13-strong selection, revealed on Tuesday and chaired by classicist Mary Beard, spans authors of seven nationalities across three continents, with almost half based in the UK, and is being praised for rewarding literary risk-taking. Ten of the 13 writers are first-time longlistees, including debut novelists Kenan Orhan, Rebecca Perry and Djamel White.

James is nominated for The Disappearers, his fifth novel, centred on a homophobic mob attack in 1980s Jamaica, having previously won the £50,000 prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings. Stuart, who won in 2020 with Shuggie Bain, returns with his third novel, John of John; a repeat win for either would make them only the fifth author to win the Booker twice, joining JM Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood. Strout picks up her third nomination for The Things We Never Say, while the list also includes potential firsts, with Mexican-British writer Chloe Aridjis and Turkish-American Kenan Orhan poised to become the first winners of their respective heritages, and 81-year-old M John Harrison the oldest nominee.