The author of The Vivisectors, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, on Plato, reading and writing on the move, and the books that made her reconsider everything
Missouri Williams
Missouri Williams is a novelist, playwright and editor
Williams is the author of The Doloriad, which won the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize and was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her work has also appeared in The Nation, The Baffler, The Believer, Granta and The Drift. Williams was born in London and currently lives in Prague.
The Vivisectors was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026.
Missouri Williams on The Vivisectors
‘I was reading Plato’s Republic and thinking about allegorical cities more generally, and The Vivisectors slowly took shape. It felt like a way to explore a set of ideas that had preoccupied me for some time, but primarily the book is a reflection on the question of what fiction is good for. I wanted to write a story that felt like a puzzle, and for there to be something essential beneath it. Writing the book helped me make sense of the things I saw happening around me.’
Read the full interview here.
All nominated books
Coursing with icy suspense and rendered with violent precision, The Vivisectors is a new kind of love story for a broken era
Features
- Book extract
An extract from The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams
- Book recommendations
