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Line up of - from left - Patricia Lockwood, Richard Powers, Nadifa Mohamed, Damon Galgut, Maggie Shipstead and Anuk Arudpragasam at Southbank Centre.
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The 2021 Booker shortlisted authors, live and in person

Published

Each year, the Booker Prize brings together the six authors whose books have been shortlisted in that year. 

After a break on in person events necessitated by the pandemic, the 2021 Booker Prize authors gathered in Coventry and London for evenings of discussion, readings and meeting readers.

See pictures, reactions and more from the events below.

Damon Galgut and Patricia Lockwood looking at each other and laughing on stage at Southbank Centre.

Damon Galgut and Patricia Lockwood on stage at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Nadifa Mohamed with her hands raised in front of her.

Nadifa Mohamed answers a question at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Alex Clark talking to Nadifa Mohamed and Richard Powers, who are turned to face her in their chairs.

Alex Clark talks to Nadifa Mohamed and Richard Powers at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Maggie Shipstead sitting down with her book on her lap, talking.

Maggie Shipstead talks on stage at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Anuk Arudpragrasam sits at a table and smiles up at a person in a mask.

Anuk Arudpragasam signs his book for a reader at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Richard Powers talks to a reader in a mask.

Richard Powers talks to a reader at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

On stage at Southbank Centre are Damon Galgut, Patricia Lockwood, Alex Clark and Nadifa Mohamed.

Patricia Lockwood (second from left) speaks to the audience at Southbank Centre as (from left) Damon Galgut, Alex Clark and Nadifa Mohamed look on.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Alex Clark laughing.

Interviewer Alex Clark on stage at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

The book is really a study of different kinds of yearning – it’s a novel about living with absence

Anuk Arudpragasam on A Passage North, at Southbank Centre, October 31 2021

Anuk Arudpragasam at a podium, looking into the distance.

Anuk Arudpragasam reads from A Passage North at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Readers imaginations have to fill in the gaps on the map

Damon Galgut on The Promise, at Southbank Centre, October 31 2021

Damon Galgut standing at a podium putting on his glasses.

Damon Galgut readies himself to read from The Promise at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

If i could eat the internet in some way and then burst, I would do that for everyone in this room

Patricia Lockwood at Southbank Centre, October 31 2021

Patricia Lockwood stands at a podium with a banner for The Booker Prize behind her to the left.

Patricia Lockwood at the podium at Southbank Centre for her reading from No One Is Talking About This.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

I fell in love with Tiger Bay, it felt like a historic version of Britain that I could see myself in

Nadifa Mohamed at Southbank Centre, October 31 2021

Nadifa Mohamed sits in a chair with her hand in front of her face mid-speech.

Nadifa Mohamed answers a question on stage at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

I drew a lot of inspiration from the world’s most famous child, who once declared her autism her superpower

Richard Powers at Southbank Centre, October 31 2021

Richard Powers speaking at a podium.

Richard Powers reads from Bewilderment at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Her circular flight is an attempt to seek a kind of horizon

Maggie Shipstead on her character Marian Graves in Great Circle, at Southbank Centre, October 31 2021

Maggie Shipstead speaks at a podium with a banner for The Booker Prize on the right side.

Maggie Shipstead reads from Great Circle at Southbank Centre.

© David Sandison/Booker Prize Foundation

Watch the shortlist films

'Great Circle' directed by Christine Ubochi and produced by Rural Media

‘Great Circle’ is directed by Christine Ubochi and stars Ria Zmitrowicz, and is created in partnership with the BBC and produced by Rural Media.

'A Passage North', directed by Yero Timi-Biu and produced by Rural Media

‘A Passage North’ is directed by Yero Timi-Biu and stars Paul G Raymond, and is created in partnership with the BBC and produced by Rural Media.

'The Promise', directed by Christine Ubochi and produced by Rural Media

Created in partnership with the BBC and Rural Media, ‘The Promise’ is directed by Christine Ubochi and stars David Jonsson.

'The Fortune Men' directed by Yero Timi-Biu and produced by Rural Media

Created in partnership with the BBC and Rural Media, ‘The Fortune Men’ is directed by Yero Timi Biu and stars Elmi Rashid Elmi.

'Bewilderment', directed by Liam Young and produced by Rural Media

Created in partnership with the BBC and Rural Media, ‘Bewilderment’ stars Luke Norris and is directed by Liam Young.

'No One is Talking About This', directed by Liam Young and produced by Rural Media

‘No One Is Talking About This’ is directed by Liam Young, stars Fiona Button and is produced by Rural Media in partnership with the BBC.

Explore the shortlisted books

A Passage North
Anuk Arudpragasam's masterful novel is an attempt to come to terms with life in the wake of the devastation of Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war
The Promise
Prize winner
Brutal emotional truths hit home in Damon Galgut’s deft, powerful story of a diminished family and a troubled land
The Fortune Men
Nadifa Mohamed’s gripping novel about a petty criminal in Cardiff who becomes the last man to be hanged there, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1952
Bewilderment
An astrobiologist thinks of a creative way to help his rare and troubled son in Richard Powers’ deeply moving and brilliantly original novel
Great Circle
The lives of a fearless female aviator and the actress who portrays her on screen decades later intersect in Maggie Shipstead’s vivid, soaring novel