The Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, announced their shortlist earlier this week. Of the 6 nominated, 4 women and 2 men make up the list.

Judges for the award have acknowledged this year’s list of nominees as one of the most diverse in the history of the award. The authors nominated live across the world with their books echoing that same global range–drawing from settings in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and New Zealand. 

Robert Macfarlane, chair of the judges this year, commented on the range of this year’s nominees.

It is most instantly striking for its global range. This is a shortlist which shows the English language novel to be a form of world literature. It crosses
continents, it joins countries and span centuries. It is an exceptionally international and exceptionally varied shortlist. What connects them is
connection. They are all about ways of connecting: technological, familial, emotional and in one case elemental. There are also inevitably about
connections in reverse: loss, grief, separation, exile and dispossession. In some ways, these novels are all about the strange ways in which people are
brought together and the painful ways in which they are held apart.

The winner of The Man Booker will be announced on October 15th and will receive a 50,000 pound prize (equivalent to about $78,000).

Here are the women writers nominated, you can find the full list of nominees here.

We Need New Names
– NoViolet Bulawayo

The Luminaries
– Eleanor Catton

The Lowland
– Jhumpa Lahiri

A Tale for the Time Being
– Ruth Ozeki