The longlist for one of the UK's most prestigious annual book awards was announced on the 10th of March. The award celebrates fiction printed in Britain that has been written by female writers from any nationality.
Ali Smith's novel Summer was among the 16 books longlisted to be in with a chance for this year's prize.
Smith was born and raised in Inverness and later attended the Aberdeen University to study English language and literature. She is a novelist, playwright, poet, and journalist who now lives in Cambridge where she focuses on her writing.
Summer was published on the 2nd July 2020 and is the final installment of Smith's seasonal quartet. It has been described as the first serious coronavirus novel as each book in her series was written and published within a few months so that they were as up-to-date as possible. The book centers around an unusual family, most specifically two siblings, and how they react to the changing world around them.
Smith won the 2015 Women's Fiction Prize with her novel How to Be Both. When speaking about the book Shami Chakrabarti, Chair of Judges, said “Ancient and modern meet and speak to each other in this tender, brilliant and witty novel of grief, love, sexuality and shape-shifting identity.” The judges will release a shortlist of six books on the 28th of April and the winner will be announced on the 7th of July. The winner will be awarded £30,000 and a bronze figurine.
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