The Rathbones Folio Prize 2021 Longlist



Just Us – Claudia Rankine (Allen Lane)


Indelicacy – Amina Cain (Daunt Books)


The Appointment – Katharina Volckmer (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
In a well-appointed examination in London, a young woman unburdens herself to a certain Dr Seligman, to whom she holds forth about her life and desires, her struggles with her sexuality and identity. Katharina Volckmer was born in Germany in 1987. She lives in London, where she works for a literary agency. The Appointment is her first novel.

As You Were – Elaine Feeney (Harvill Secker)


The Geez – Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Peepal Tree Press)


The Mermaid of Black Conch – Monique Roffey (Peepal Tree Press)


Poor – Caleb Femi (Penguin)


OK, Let’s Do Your Stupid Idea – Patrick Freyne (Penguin Ireland)


The Actual – Inua Ellams (Penned In The Margins)


Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart (Picador)


My Darling from the Lions – Rachel Long (Picador)


English Pastoral – James Rebanks (Allen Lane)


The Pink Line: The World’s Queer Frontiers – Mark Gevisser (Profile Books)


In the Dream House: A Memoir – Carmen Maria Machado (Serpent’s Tail)


Strangers – Rebecca Tamás (Makina Books)
In Strangers, Rebecca Tamás explores where the human and nonhuman meet, and why this delicate connection just might be the most important relationship of our times.


RENDANG – Will Harris (Granta)
A rising star of contemporary British poetry reflects on race, culture, memory and identity in his first full-length collection.
Will Harris is a writer of Chinese Indonesian and British heritage, born and based in London. His debut poetry book RENDANG is published by Granta in the UK and Wesleyan University Press in the US. It was a Poetry Book Society Choice and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2020.


Entangled Life – Merlin Sheldrake (The Bodley Head)
Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into a spectacular and neglected world which shows that fungi provide a key to understanding both the planet on which we live and life itself. Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and a writer. He received a Ph.D. in Tropical Ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a musician and keen fermenter. Entangled Life is his first book.

handiwork – Sara Baume (Tramp Press)
handiwork is a contemplative short narrative from acclaimed writer and visual artist Sara Baume. It offers observations at once gentle and devastating, on the nature of art, grief and a life lived well. Sara Baume’s work first appeared in newspapers and journals such as the Irish Times, the Guardian, The Stinging Fly and Granta. She won the 2014 Davy Byrnes Short Story Award for ‘SoleSearcher1’, and went on to receive the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award, the Rooney Prize for Literature and an Irish Book Award for Best Newcomer in 2015. Her debut novel Spill Simmer Falter Wither was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the Warwick Prize for Writing, the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award. It was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. In autumn 2015, she was a participant in the International Writing Program run by the University of Iowa and received a Literary Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A Ghost in the Throat – Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Tramp Press)
A devastating and timeless tale about finding your voice by freeing another’s. Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a poet and essayist. Her most recent book is the bestseller A Ghost in the Throat, which finds the eighteenth-century poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill haunting the life of a contemporary young mother, prompting her to turn detective. Doireann is also author of six critically-acclaimed books of poetry, each a deepening exploration of birth, death, desire, and domesticity.

How Much of These Hills is Gold – C Pam Zhang (Virago)
A novel about the making of America, through the eyes of two siblings fighting to survive during Gold Rush. Born in Beijing but mostly an artifact of the United States, C Pam Zhang has lived in thirteen cities and is still looking for home. She’s been awarded fellowships and scholarships from organisations including Bread Loaf, Tin House and Aspen Words. Her work appears in Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Tin House and elsewhere.The Rathbones Folio Prize 2021 Judges
The T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet Roger Robinson, the Irish writer, editor and broadcaster Sinéad Gleeson and novelist and short story writer Jon McGregor.



Roger Robinson, chair won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2019 and RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2020 and is currently on the shortlist for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. He has performed all over the world and was chosen by Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced the Black-British writing can- on. His latest collection‘A Portable Paradise’ was a ‘New Statesman’ Book of the Year. As well as leading workshops and touring extensively with the British Council he is lead vocalist and lyricist for King Midas Sound and has recorded solo albums.
Sinead Gleeson was shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2020 with Constellations: Reflections from Life which won the Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards and the 2020 Dalkey Literary Award. Her short stories have appeared in a number of collections and she is the editor of four anthologies of short stories, most recently published The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories. She is now working on a novel.
Jon McGregor is the author of four novels and a story collection and has been shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018. He has been longlisted for the Booker prize three times and his books have won a Betty Trask Prize, a Somerset Maugham Award and the International Dublin Literary Award. He was named 2002 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 2002 and in 2010, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham. His new book, Lean Fall Stand, will be published in 2021.
The Rathbones Folio Prize 2021 Prize Timeline
Shortlist Announcement
On 10 February the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021 shortlist will be announced.Winner Announcement
On 24 Match the winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize 2021 will be announced. The ceremony and events will take place in a physical and digital hybrid form. More details will be released soon.‘Books That Helped Us Through This Year’ series
Reading recommendation from Folio Academy members.








The Rathbones Folio Prize 2021 Mentors
Raymond Antrobus, Kathryn Marris, Paul Farley and Rachel Long confirmed as mentors for the 2021 Rathbones Folio Mentorship programme.




A Bright Future for the Rathbones Folio Prize
