The Folio Prize Shortlist

The Folio Prize announced this morning the shortlist for its inaugural fiction prize, sponsored by The Folio Society, publishers of beautiful limited editions. They are:

Red Doc> by Anne Carson
Schroder by Amity Gaige
Last Friends by Jane Gardam
Benediction by Kent Haruf
The Flame Throwers by Rachel Kushner
A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride
A Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava
Tenth of December by George Saunders

Said Lavinia Greenlaw, chair of the judges, "Our experience of reading 80 books over five months was full of surprises, challenges, frustrations, provocations, regrets and delights. The shortlist we've arrived at is one of which we're proud. Our deliberations were long and intense. We forgot about the authors and focused on the books. Only when we surfaced with our chosen eight in hand did we reflect on what they collectively represent: the art of fiction at full stretch and in all its forms, and the igneous and dazzling results of form under exquisite pressure."  

The Folio Prize aims to celebrate the best English-language fiction in any form published in the UK during a given year. It is open to writers from all over the world. These eight shortlisted authors are vying for a £40,000 prize, to be awarded at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London on March 10.

It was also announced that the Folio Society will sponsor a new event, The Folio Prize Fiction Festival, in partnership with the British Library, during the weekend of March 8-9.