"Newness of many different kinds” - Goldsmiths Prize 2026 Shortlist Revealed

The shortlist for the Goldsmiths Prize 2026 has been announced. The £10,000 prize rewards fiction that breaks the mould and extends the possibility of the novel.

This year, the Goldsmiths Prize received a record number of submissions. In keeping with the spirit of the Prize, the six shortlisted novels each bring new perspectives and approaches, reinventing the novel form. 

The six shortlisted novels are: 

• Polly Barton, What Am I, A Deer? (Fitzcarraldo Editions) 
• China Miéville, The Rouse (Picador) 
• Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Said the Dead (Faber) 
• Keith Ridgway, Dooneen (Fitzcarraldo Editions) 
• Aea Varfis-van Warmelo, Attention Seeking Behaviour (Peninsula Press) 
• Missouri Williams, The Vivisectors (4th Estate) 

The shortlist includes a debut book (Attention Seeking Behaviour) and debut novel (What Am I, a Deer?) from writers previously published in other genres. The novels cover themes from reinvention, grief, and the ghosts of the past to the uncanny, truth and lies, and a new kind of love story.  

Francis Spufford, Chair of Judges and Professor of Creative Writing at Goldsmiths said: “The Goldsmiths Prize exists to remind us that the novel, as the name suggests, is new. It may be three hundred years old, but in adventurous hands, it still has limitless possibilities as a form. George Eliot described the novel as 'a crystalline mass that can be poured into any form', and we haven't run out of new shapes yet."

Tanjil Rashid, Culture Editor at The New Statesman, said: "A spirit of experimentation and freedom has been central to the novel and its enduring appeal; all of these books have that. Once again, I’m so proud to be involved in this project that will bring great, and adventurous, writing to more people."

Now in its fourteenth year, the Goldsmiths Prize was launched in association with The New Statesman in 2013 with the goal of celebrating the creative daring associated with Goldsmiths and to reward fiction from the UK and Ireland that is genuinely novel and embodies the spirit of invention that characterises the genre at its best.    

Joining Professor Francis Spufford on this year's Goldsmiths Prize judging panel are writer and translator Kate Briggs, novelist Hari Kunzru, and journalist and former Evening Standard Literary Editor David Sexton.

The winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2026 will be announced on 4 November 2026.