The author of Love Forms, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about writing at the kitchen table, and the text that spoke to her in the language of the Caribbean

The author of The South, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, reflects on the inspirations behind the novel, the books that shaped him, and his need for peace, quiet and coffee in order to write

The author of Universality, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about the essay that made her want to become a writer and how she can make a makeshift writing desk pretty much anywhere

The author of One Boat, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about how writing became a daily necessity and about the books he reads again and again

The author of Flashlight, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, on being haunted by childhood memories of a trip to Japan, and the richness of short novels

The author of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about her love of The Wind in the Willows and how Latin American writers have influenced her

The author of Audition, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about her love of Steinbeck and Dreiser, and how almost every book changes the way she thinks about the world

The author of The Rest of Our Lives, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, on writing about middle age, an anthology that inspired him, and the book club that gave him a taste for Philip Roth

The author of The Land in Winter, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, explains what inspired his novel, and names the books and writers that have influenced him over the years

The author of Endling, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about 45-minute writing stints and the off-hand remark that partly inspired her novel

The author of Flesh, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, reflects on the most inspiring books from his youth, his love of Samuel Pepys’s diaries, and why 6am is his best time to write

The author of Seascraper, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, discusses feeling compelled to write about the region where he grew up, and reveals that he wrote the novel on a churchyard bench

The author of Misinterpretation, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, talks about the book that made her walk into a lamppost, and the one with the most beautiful last sentence ever written