Kent shortlisted for Walter Scott Prize

Hannah Kent has been shortlisted for the 2017 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction for her novel The Good People (Picador).

Kent is one of seven titles shortlisted for the £25,000 (A$40,783) prize. Also shortlisted are:

• A Country Road, A Tree (Jo Baker, Doubleday)
• Days Without End (Sebastian Barry, Faber)
• The Vanishing Futurist (Charlotte Hobson, Faber)
• Golden Hill (Francis Spufford, Faber)
• Mothering Sunday (Graham Swift, S&S)
• The Gustav Sonata (Rose Tremain, Vintage).

The judges said this year’s shortlist was longer than usual ‘due to the variety of the longlist, and the fresh perspectives and lively debate generated by the introduction of three new judges to the panel’.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, Australian-born, US-based author Dominic Smith was longlisted for the prize for The Last Painting of Sara de Vos (A&U), while Australian author Emily Bitto’s The Strays (Affirm) was featured in an additional list of 20 books recommended by the Walter Scott Prize Academy.

The winner will be announced at the Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival in Scotland on 17 June 2017. For more information about the prize, click here.

Category: Local news