The Rathbones Folio Prize has released its longlist for this year’s prize this past Monday on March 18th. The Rathbones Folio Prize—often just shortened to the Folio Prize—is often considered the Booker prize’s rival as a literary award, due to the award being an immediate reaction to the sign that the Booker Prize was abandoning its focus and fixation on literary fiction in favour of popular narratives and fiction. The Rathbones Folio Prize created further distinction between itself and the Booker Prize, by allowing entry regardless of form (short story, novella, or novel), while the Booker Prize has retained its established practice of awarding the prize to a singular novel, and had opened the prize up to any country where the literary work was written in English and published in the United Kingdom—meaning the Rathbones Folio Prize had been available for American writers to win since its inception, long before the Booker Prize had opened its criteria and borders to American authors as well.
Despite its reputation as a rival prize, the Rathbones Folio Prize has failed to make the waves intended to make it a headlining literary prize. Its overshadowed by the Man Booker International Prize, and because it failed to award and take considerations in two-thousand and sixteen, has failed to gain the necessary exposure to be considered immediate and relevant in the literary worlds glitz and glamour. This year, however, the Rathbones Folio Prize has created waves with its longlist, because it has included high profile authors of the recent year: Anna Burns (last year’s Booker Prize winning author) and Sally Rooney, who considered a favourite for last year’s Booker Prize, and would later win the Costa Book Award, earlier this year. Despite its attempt at being recognized as an independent and noteworthy prize of its own merit, the Rathbones Folio Prize still resides largely in the shadow of the Booker Prize.
Without further ado though Gentle Reader, the following is the longlist for this year’s award:
Anna Burns – Ireland – “Milkman,”
Ashleigh Young – New Zealand – “Can You Tolerate This? “
Guy Staff – United Kingdom – “The Crossway,”
Bob Gilbert –United Kingdom – “Ghost Trees,”
Novuyo Rosa Tshuma – Zimbabwe – “House of Stone,”
Eue Prideaux – United Kingdom – “I am Dynamite!”
Georgina Harding – United Kingdom – “Land of the Living,”
Edward Carey – United Kingdom – “Little,”
Nancy Campbell – United Kingdom – “The Library of Ice,”
Chris Power – United Kingdom – “Mothers,”
Alice Jolly – United Kingdom – “Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile,”
Will Eaves – United Kingdom – “Murmur,”
Diana Evans – United Kingdom – “Ordinary People,”
Raymond Antrobus – United Kingdom – “The Perseverance,”
Mohammed Hanif – Pakistan – “Red Birds,”
Tommy Orange – America – “There There,”
Zaffar Kunial – United Kingdom – “Us,”
Sally Rooney – Ireland – “Normal People,”
Carys Davies – Australia – “West,”
Anne Wrote – United Kingdom – “Francis: A Life in Song,”
A survey of the longlist immediately gives on pause to reflect and review the United Kingdom centric perspective that has been established with the collection and consideration of this year’s prizes preliminary list. Of the twenty authors and novelist listed:
Two writers come from Ireland
One writer from Australia
One writer from Zimbabwe
One writer from Pakistan
And One writer from America
Which means the remaining fourteen authors all hail from the United Kingdom. Then again the award should be based on literary merit more then diversity or where a writer hails from.
For now though Gentle Reader, this year’s judges will mull over the longlisted authors as they deliberate the shortlist in the coming weeks and prepare to name the winner in the coming months.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
M. Mary
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