Virginia Evans and Susan Choi are among 6 finalists for the Women's Prize for Fiction

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LONDON (AP) — Four debut novelists are among six books on a U.S.-dominated list of finalists for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, which is open to female English-language writers from any country.

American authors take four of the six places on the shortlist for the 30,000 pounds ($40,000) prize, announced Wednesday by a judging panel led by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Among them are bestselling writer Lily King’s campus-set romance “Heart the Lover” and Susan Choi’s twisty family saga “Flashlight,” a finalist for last year’s Booker Prize.

First novels making the list include U.S. writer Virginia Evans’ “The Correspondent,” a novel told in letters with an older woman as protagonist that became a slow-burn hit after its release in 2025; and Addie E. Citchens’ “Dominion,” a story of power and patriarchy centered on a Black church in Mississippi.

Rounding out the list are two debut novels by British writers: Marcia Hutchinson’s “The Mercy Step,” a girl’s coming-of-age story set in northern England, and Rozie Kelly’s tale of love and grief, “Kingfisher.”

Gillard, who was Australia’s leader between 2010 and 2013, said the books are all page-turners with intriguing characters that explore “power — where it lies, where it doesn’t lie. How you find the ability to chart your own life course, what it means to potentially have others that are pushing you in different directions as you try and chart that life course.”

The number of debut novelists doesn’t mean the authors lack experience. Hutchinson is a former lawyer in her 60s, while Evans wrote seven unpublished novels before finding international success with “The Correspondent.”

“I think the way the publishing industry is working now, there are quite a number of authors coming to the fore for whom being a fiction author is well and truly a second act in a life that has brought other careers,” said Gillard.

“I’m delighted to see that,” Gillard told The Associated Press — though she is not in a rush to join them. While former leaders including Bill Clinton in the U.S. and Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland have written or co-written political thrillers, Gillard says she is not working on a novel.

“Never say never, but I’m not sure about that,” said Gillard, who has written a memoir and nonfiction books about women and leadership. “But I’m a fiction lover, a fiction reader, and it’s been just fantastic to have this experience” as a Women’s Prize judge.

Next, the five judges will meet to choose a winner. Previous winners of the fiction prize, founded in 1996, include Zadie Smith, Tayari Jones and Barbara Kingsolver. A sister prize for nonfiction was founded in 2024.

Winners of both prizes will be announced June 11 at a ceremony in London.