How does it feel to be shortlisted for the Booker prize?

The shortlist for the UK’s most prestigious literary award was announced this week – but is it stressful for the nominated authors? Charlotte Cripps investigates

This year’s six Booker Prize shortlisted authors have just been announced (The Booker Prize)

The Booker Prize is like the Oscars for literature but how do authors feel about being shortlisted – or even winning?

This year’s six Booker Prize shortlisted authors were announced on Tuesday evening by the Chair of Judges, Neil MacGregor. They include Alan Garner, 88, with Treacle Walker – he’s the oldest author ever to be shortlisted – and Claire Keegan with Small Things Like These, which at 116 pages is the shortest book (by page number) to be recognised in the prize’s history.

Being shortlisted may not be as life-changing as winning the prize itself, but it certainly ups the game. It’s a label that sticks and although book sales aren’t anything like as enormous as they are if they go on to win – the 2021 winner Damon Galgut’s The Promise sold almost 2,000 per cent more in the two weeks after the prize than it had done before it – it’s still significant.