Marlon James and Douglas Stuart make Booker Prize shortlist

Authors Marlon James and Douglas Stuart could become the fifth writers to win the Booker Prize twice after making the shortlist for the prestigious U.K. fiction award in London. Judges reduced the 13 semifinalists announced in July down to six books on Tuesday, picking them from a total of 163 submissions. The winner of the prize receives 50,000 pounds. Mary Beard, the historian who leads the judging panel, stated that most of the books felt like old friends after at least two readings. The judging panel also includes musician Jarvis Cocker and novelist Patricia Lockwood. James is shortlisted for "The Disappearers," which follows a group of gay men in Jamaica during the 1980s. Stuart is nominated for "John of John," a story about a father and son on a remote Scottish island. James previously won the prize in 2015 for "A Brief History of Seven Killings," while Stuart won in 2020 for "Shuggie Bain." Winning again would place either author alongside previous double winners J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel, and Margaret Atwood. Other nominees include Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout for "The Things We Never Say," British author Rebecca Perry for "May We Feed the King," 81-year-old M. John Harrison for "The End of Everything," and Luke Kennard for "Black Bag." This year marks only the second time in the past decade that men outnumber women on the shortlist. The Booker Prize, founded in 1969, is open to novels written in English from any country as long as they are published in the U.K. or Ireland.