Who is Leila Mottley? 'Nightcrawling' author, 20, is youngest-ever contender for $60,000 Booker Prize
The Booker Prize has released its longlist of 13 books from diverse backgrounds which it seeks to award this year. Out of 13, 6 American authors have been nominated. 'Trust' by Hernan Diaz, 'The Trees' authored by Percival Everett, Karen Joy Fowler's 'Booth', 'After Shoppy' by Selby Wynn Schwartz, Elizabeth Strout's, 'Oh William!' and 'Nightcrawling' by Leila Mottley are the American nominees.
Alongside them, other writers from different nationalities have made it to the list. NoViolet Bulawayo, Percival Everett, Shahan Karunatilaka, Claire Keegan, Graeme Macrae Burnet, Maddie Mortimer, and Selby Lynn Schwartz are some of the other authors who are nominated by the jury. All thirteen are in contention for the $60,000 prize money.
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Who is Leila Mottley?
Mottley, the youngest to make it to the Booker prize nomination list is just 20. She has authored the book, 'Nightcrawling'. Mottley was born and raised in Oakland, California and apparently, Oakland is the background to her story as well. She belongs to a creative family where her father, Nick Mottley is a playwright and it has given her wings for her artistic dreams. Mottley is one of three debutant novelists are on the list. The others include Britain’s Maddie Mortimer and American author Selby Wynn Schwartz for their books Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies and After Sappho respectively.
Mottley's book 'Nightcrawling' primarily deals with various subjugations and oppressions faced by a young Black woman. This book received both critics' and readers' appreciation. Mottley began writing 'Nightcrawling' just before her 17th birthday, she wrote most of the part of the book, after her early graduation from high school.
Alan Garner is the oldest author to be nominated to the list this year. This 87-year-old author has been the recipient of various awards such as The Guardian Prize, and Carnegie Medal. His book,' Treacle Walker was extensively praised for its vivid storytelling method as well as for its interfusion of myth and folklore. In 2022, the Booker Prize judging panel consists of Neil MacGregor, who is a famous British Art Historian cum Music Director, Shahidha Bari, A British academic as well as critic, and Helen Castor, who is a historian that researches mostly the medieval and Tudor Period. M John Harrison, a famous English author, and critic, and Alain Mabanckou, a popular writer and journalist.
MacGregor will chair the judges. The panel stated it had read and discussed 169 works of fiction over the last seven months before deciding on the longlist together.“The list that we have selected offers story, fable, and parable, fantasy, mystery, meditation, and thriller,” he said. The Booker Prize 2022 longlist will be made to a shortlist comprising six books, which will be announced on 6 September. The Booker Prize 2022 winner will be announced on October 17.
The Booker Prize 2022 longlist
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Trees by Percival Everett
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shahan Karunatilaka
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Colony by Audrey Magee
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
After Sappho by Selby Lynn Schwartz
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout