A WRITER from Frome has been included in the shortlist for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023, celebrating fiction at its most novel.

Kate Briggs, who grew up in Somerset and now lives and works in Rotterdam, has been shortlisted thanks to her novel The Long Form.

Kate said: “I am happy to share my West Country roots: I grew up in Frome, where I went to school, receiving GCSEs. A levels (and other more vital life skills) from Frome Community College.”

The judging panel has narrowed down more than 100 submissions into a shortlist of mould-breaking books, with six authors in the running for the £10,000 literary prize.

For over 10 years, the Goldsmiths Prize, in partnership with the New Statesman, has rewarded fiction that breaks the mould or extends the possibilities of the novel form.

The annual prize is awarded to a book that is deemed genuinely novel and embodies the spirit of invention that characterizes the genre at its best.

Authors Helen Oyeyemi and Maddie Mortimer, the New Statesman’s Ellen Peirson-Hagger, and lecturer in creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, Tom Lee, formed the judging panel for 2023.

Dr Tom Lee, Chair of Judges said: “From the 107 books submitted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2023, the judges have chosen a shortlist that more than meets the Prize’s mission to celebrate fiction that pushes the boundaries of what the novel can do.

“What struck us was the sheer ambition and invention on display in these six wildly different books.

“This is a shortlist that shows the novel – that most slippery and vital of forms – continuing to morph and reinvent itself in ways that surprise and delight us.”

Tom Gatti, executive editor of culture at The New Statesman, said: “This year’s Goldsmiths judges have produced yet another intriguing, invigorating shortlist. The New Statesman is delighted to continue its association with this agenda-setting prize.”

Winners of the prestigious literary prize during its first decade have included Eimear McBride for A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, Ali Smith for How to Be Both, and Isabel Waidner for Sterling Karat Gold.

The winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2023 will be announced on Wednesday, November 8.

The first public event with the winner will take place at the Cambridge Literary Festival on 19 November For more information visit this website.