Chris Power, one of the Booker Prize 2025 judges, discusses how Tolkien ignited his love of fiction and how reading as part of a group can be transformative
Chris Power
Booker Prize 2025 judge
- Prizes judged
Chris Power is a writer, broadcaster, and literary critic
Chris Power is the author of a novel, A Lonely Man, a Washington Post and New Statesman book of the year, and a short story collection, Mothers, which was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. His fiction has appeared in Granta, the Stinging Fly and the Dublin Review. He was a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open Book’ from 2020 to 2024. His criticism has appeared in newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, the Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the New Statesman, Fantastic Man and the London Review of Books.
He regularly chairs literary events and has taught writing in various capacities, including on the MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. His judging experience includes the Frank O’Connor Prize, the BBC National Short Story Award, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize.
He is a judge for the Booker Prize 2025.
Fiction is as fundamental as eating and sleeping for me. If I went a day without a novel or story maybe it would be fine, but I don’t plan to find out
Chris Power, Booker Prize 2025 judge, on the power of fiction
