The Booker Prize Foundation in England has announced another competition–not between books or authors or publishers, but between book clubs.
The UK’s Booker Prize looks to boost social media with a book club contest. Tagged the ‘Booker Prize Book Club Challenge’, it will be won by a book club that produces the most impressive social media for the shortlist.
The jury on the Booker Prize for Fiction 2022 Helen Castor, Alain Mabanckou, chair Neil MacGregor, M John Harrison, and Shahidha Bari.
Deadline for club applications is August 12.
As announced on Tuesday 12 July, the new project will see “representatives from each group given an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist party at the Serpentine Gallery in London” on September 6.
Each of these clubs will be assigned one of the six books on the Booker shortlist. Each club will be given copies of its assigned book so that each club member can read and discuss it.
The jury will not only have chosen the books, but then will sort through applications for what the foundation calls “the most interesting, passionate, and wide-ranging set of readers possible.”
The chosen six clubs will also be those deemed by the jurors to be “willing to shout the loudest about this year’s Booker Prize shortlist on social media, so that readers everywhere can follow the judging process and enjoy the books.”
The clubs not only will seek to flood the zone with social media about the Booker shortlist but they’ll also be in competition with each other on those platforms. The foundation’s media messaging goes on, “In the weeks leading up to the winner announcement, the judges will read and assess all of the six book groups’ social-media activity relating to their assigned books. Two members of the group which, in the jurors’ opinion, has provided the most original and engaging reviews will be invited to attend the 2022 Booker Prize ceremony and dinner at the Roundhouse in London on October 17.”
This competition is restricted to the United Kingdom, unlike authors eligible for the Booker Prize for Fiction itself. “Applications are open to book clubs from across the UK, from all backgrounds.”
The foundation has however said that it does hope to see the book club contest become more internationalized in the future.
The competition is managed by the Reading Agency, a charity focused on UK-based projects.
