Irish writer Roddy Doyle has been announced as the chair of the judging panel for the Booker Prize 2025.
The author, known for books The Snapper, The Van, The Commitments, is the first Booker Prize winner to chair the judging panel. He won the prestigious award in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.
Doyle is joined on the panel by Booker Prize-longlisted novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, award-winning actor, producer and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker, writer, broadcaster and literary critic Chris Power and New York Times bestselling and Booker Prize-longlisted author Kiley Reid.
We're thrilled to reveal the #BookerPrize2025 judging panel.
— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) December 10, 2024
Roddy Doyle will act as chair of judges, and will be joined by @ayobamiadebayo, @SJP, @chris_power and @kileyreid.https://t.co/gPp00XjFHL
Doyle said: "For more than forty years, I've been writing novels, or editing novels, or thinking about the next novel. For longer still – since my mother taught me how to read – I’ve filled hours of every day with novels, reading them, re-reading them, just gazing at them.
"So, to have licence to do little else but read the year’s best novels, to find the familiar in the unfamiliar, to examine the remarkable, unique things that great writers can do with the shared language, English – I can’t wait.
"I’m looking forward to working with a great panel of judges. I’ve never been in a book club before, but I think I’m probably joining a good one."
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, added: "The 2025 judges form a jury of creative peers like no other. We've never before had three Booker authors on the panel.
"Roddy, the first past Booker winner to chair the judges, has already brought generosity, wit and calm to the process, and I have no doubt that he will draw together this stellar crowd as they seek the best fiction of the year.
"Ayọ̀bámi and Kiley, both past longlistees and very different writers, are perfectly placed to identify a cohort following in their footsteps. I’ve long admired Chris’s acuity and taste, and have in recent months enjoyed sharing book recommendations with Sarah Jessica, who has passionately supported contemporary fiction for many years. I’m hugely looking forward to listening in."
The Booker Prize is annually awarded to the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
The prize is now open for submissions from publishers for books published between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025.
The 'Booker Dozen’ of 12 or 13 books will be announced next July, with the shortlist of six books to follow in September.
The winner of the Booker Prize 2025 will be announced in November, with the winner receiving £50,000 (€60,000).
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