The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) recently posted its longlist for the 2026 RSL Ondaatje Prize (see below). Our whole-hearted congratulations to Jamaica’s Diana McCaulay, whose novel, A House for Miss Pauline, is on the list! The 2026 shortlist will be announced on Monday, May 11, 2026, and a winner will be presented with the prize at a celebratory event at the beginning of June.

The RSL Ondaatje Prize is an annual award of £10,000 for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry, evoking the spirit of a place. This year’s prize will be awarded by judges Claire Armitstead, Emma Dabiri and Ekow Eshun. 

Longlist:

• A Granite Silence by Nina Allan 
• A House for Miss Pauline by Diana McCaulay
• Big Time by Jordan Prosser
• Enchanted Ground: Growing Roots in a Broken World by Steven Lovatt
• Frogs For Watchdogs by Seán Farrell 
• Greyhound by Joanna Pocock 
• Helm by Sarah Hall
• Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
• Lifelines: Searching for Home in the Mountains of Greece by Julian Hoffman 
• Love, Sex & Frankenstein by Caroline Lea 
• Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal
• The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine
• The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet
• The Whispers of Rock by Anjana Khatwa
• Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser
• Goonie by Michael Mullen 

See original post at https://www.facebook.com/RoyalSocietyLiterature

Also see https://rsliterature.org/