Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist includes Irish writers Megan Nolan, Anne Enright and Claire Kilroy

Three Irish writers have been named in this year's Women's Prize for Fiction longlist; Waterford novelist Megan Nolan, Booker Prize winner Anne Enright and Soldier Sailor author Claire Kilroy.

Literary giant Anne Enright, who has previously been shortlisted twice and longlisted four times, is recognised again for The Wren, The Wren, her eighth novel, a family saga featuring Nell, her mother Carmel and her famous grandfather, a poet of beautiful words and brutal actions

Megan Nolan is longlisted for her sophomore novel, Ordinary Human Failings, about a journalist’s attempt to get a scoop after a child is found dead on a London estate and suspicion falls on an Irish family.

Claire Kilroy is longlisted for the first time for Soldier, Sailor, the author's fifth novel but her first in 10 years. about a new mother’s love for her child and struggle for autonomy.

The longlist features 16 novels in total, and will be whittled down to six on April 24, while the winner will be selected on June 13.

The successful author will be awarded the prize of £30,000.

Brick Lane author Monica Ali, who chairs this year’s judging panel, says that this year's longlist speaks to to the fantastic flourishing of Irish writing.

Ali added “not just the Women’s Prize but the Booker too" (referencing Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, which won last year’s Booker Prize)

"The Irish take literature very seriously and nurture their writers with more funding, fellowships, space to develop. That shows through. I wish we in the UK could pay some attention to that and follow suit.”

Ali said: “The strength of Anne Enright’s writing is tremendous, gorgeous and evocative and scalpel sharp. I ended up just writing out sentences, I’m not a sentence fetishist but the beauty of her writing is transporting. The Wren, The Wren is a meditation on love, family, trauma, a testament to the resilience of women in face of what life throws at them. A psychologically astute examination of family dynamics and the nature of memory.”

Soldier Sailor is “a tremendous piece of work, a very fine canvas, a tiny domestic space. I thought I must have read so much before about mothers and their babies but when I read it I realised I hadn’t. It’s so powerful the way it exposes the dynamics around autonomy, creativity, power shifts within marriage after the first baby, loss of identity, rage without losing sight of the love.”

Discussing Nolan’s novel, she said, “what we found brilliant is the way it focuses on a family that might be labelled as troubled, written off. What we get in a clever structure is a really layered, nuanced look at individual lives full humanity. It deals with alcoholism, unplanned pregnancy, it breaks your heart but also leaves you with hope.”

The 2024 Women's Prize for Fiction longlist

Hangman by Maya Binyam

In Defence of the Act by Effie Black

And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott

The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

The Maiden by Kate Foster

Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy

8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae Lee

The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord

Western Lane by Chetna Maroo

Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams