From which year did the Booker Prize start publicly publishing its longlist? The Booker Prize began publicly publishing its longlist in 2001.
Before 2001, the prize’s judges considered a broad field of eligible books, but the full preliminary list was not released to the public. The change gave readers, booksellers and publishers a new annual snapshot of the fiction being discussed before the final shortlist was announced.
The 2001 longlist contained 24 books, including works by John Banville, Anita Brookner, Michael Frayn, Zadie Smith and Zakes Mda. Peter Carey ultimately won that year for True History of the Kelly Gang. The public longlist helped make the prize more of a season-long literary event rather than a contest known mainly for its shortlist and winner.
The longlist is not the same as the shortlist. The longlist is the larger group selected in the first major public stage; judges then reduce it to six shortlisted books, from which the winner is chosen. The size of the longlist has varied in later years, so 2001 identifies the starting year, not a permanent number of titles.