Ayobami Adebayo Becomes 5th Nigerian To Be Longlisted For Booker Prize

The Booker Prize is given each year to the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

Authors are nominated for the prize based on their quality and dedication to promoting art and literature.

Originally, the prize was exclusively open to citizens of the Commonwealth, Ireland, South Africa, and later Zimbabwe. However, in 2014, the eligibility criteria were broadened to encompass any novel written in the English language.

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Ayobami Adebayo shot into the limelight with her debut novel, ‘Stay With Me’, which won the 9mobile Prize for Literature and the Prix Les Afriques. She was awarded The Future Awards Africa Prize for Arts and Culture in 2017. Now she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize for 2023 and has been longlisted for her latest book, ‘A Spell of Good Things’.

The novel has been described as a “magnificent novel that illuminates Nigeria’s haves and have-nots, as well as the shared humanity that exists in between.”