Goldsmiths Prize shortlist – six works of fiction at its most novel

The shortlist for the Goldsmiths Prize 2015 has been revealed.

The six works are: 

• Beatlebone by Kevin Barry, published by Canongate
• Acts of the Assassins by Richard Beard, published by Harvill Secker
• The Field of the Cloth of Gold by Magnus Mills, published by Bloomsbury
• Satin Island by Tom McCarthy, published by Cape
• Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter, published by Faber & Faber
• Lurid & Cute by Adam Thirlwell, published by Cape

The winner will be announced at a ceremony on 11 November 2015 at Foyles Bookshop in Charing Cross Road, London.

From an initial 101 submissions, the shortlisted works were chosen by the judges for embodying the spirit of invention that characterises the novel genre at its best.

The judging panel was made up of Chair of Judges Professor Josh Cohen, inaugural Goldsmiths Prize-winner Eimear McBride, writer Jon McGregor and the New Statesman’s lead fiction reviewer, Leo Robson.

Professor Cohen said: “Having enjoyed a long and robust discussion of the different ways today’s novelists are challenging, breaking and remaking the rules of their own form, we’re delighted to present this shortlist of audacious and original books.

“If there’s a red thread running through these fascinatingly diverse novels, it’s a very contemporary concern with life at its furthest edges.“We hope to see the shortlist provoke much curiosity and argument among many readers about the possibilities of fiction today.”

The Goldsmiths Prize was launched in 2013 with the goal of celebrating the spirit of creative daring associated with the university and to reward fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form. Eimear McBride was the first winner of the £10,000 award for her work A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing – with the victory coming nearly a decade after the work was rejected by publishers for being too experimental. 

Last year saw Ali Smith triumph with her work How To Be Both. Smith recently credited the Goldsmiths Prize for changing the literary landscape by encouraging publishers to embrace experimental works.

The Goldsmiths Prize was founded by Goldsmiths, University of London, in association with the New Statesman. 

Culture Editor of the New Statesman Tom Gatti said: “The Goldsmiths Prize shortlist has become an essential annual reading list for anyone interested in ambitious fiction. The New Statesman is delighted to continue its partnership with a prize that, in its third year, is already setting the literary agenda.” 

The six shortlisted authors are due to give readings at an event held at Goldsmiths’ New Cross campus at the end of October – date to be confirmed. 

Read more on the Goldsmiths Prize website