5x15 and The Writers' Prize present a powerhouse line-up of international writing talent to speak with host, literary critic, and journalist Alex Clark about their recent works, all in contention for this year's Prize.

Paul Murray, The Bee Sting

Paul Murray, born in Dublin in 1975, authored An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies, The Mark and the Void, and The Bee Sting. An Evening of Long Goodbyes was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award. Skippy Dies was shortlisted for the Costa Novel award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and longlisted for the Booker Prize. The Mark and the Void won the Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2016. The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023. Paul Murray lives in Dublin.

Zadie Smith, The Fraud

Zadie Smith, born in northwest London, authored White Teeth, The Autograph Man, On Beauty, NW, Swing Time, The Embassy of Cambodia, and collections of essays and short stories. The Fraud is her first historical novel.

Laura Cumming, Thunderclap

Laura Cumming has been the art critic of the Observer since 1999. The Vanishing Man was longlisted for the Baillie-Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize, and won the 2017 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography. On Chapel Sands was shortlisted for several prizes.

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger

Naomi Klein authored international bestsellers including This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, No Is Not Enough, and On Fire. She is an associate professor at the University of British Columbia and has launched a regular column for The Guardian.

Liz Berry, The Home Child

Liz Berry, an award-winning poet, authored collections including Black Country, The Republic of Motherhood, The Dereliction, and The Home Child, a novel in verse. Liz has received the Somerset Maugham Award and Forward Prizes.

Mark O'Connell, A Thread of Violence

Mark O’Connell authored A Thread of Violence, Notes from an Apocalypse, and To Be a Machine, awarded the Wellcome Book Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. His work appears in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Slate, and The Guardian.

Jason Allen-Paisant, Self-Portrait as Othello

Jason Allen-Paisant is a Jamaican writer and academic at the University of Manchester. He’s the author of Thinking with Trees, winner of the OCM Bocas Prize, and Self-Portrait as Othello. His non-fiction book, Scanning the Bush, will be published in 2024.

Our Host

Alex Clark, a seasoned critic and broadcaster, chairs the discussion.

Winners will be announced on March 13th, 2024.