The Booker Prize Book Club Challenge
The Booker Prize Judges, from left to right, are Helen Castor, Alain Mabanckou, Neil MacGregor, M. John Harrison and Shahidha Bari. Photo Credit: Hugo Glendinning
Does your book club think it has what it takes to be Booker Prize judges – and would you like to be in with a chance to attend this year’s Booker Prize ceremony? We want to hear from you!
The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English-speaking world, and has brought global recognition and readership to outstanding fiction for over 50 years. Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK.
But this year we don’t just want to hear what the official judges think. We have the exciting opportunity for six book clubs to help rate and review the Booker Prize 2022 shortlist, and to have the chance to attend this year’s Booker Prize winner ceremony in London, as well as a host of other prizes.
How it works
We are inviting book clubs from all backgrounds and from all over the UK to apply to join our challenge (see how to enter, below).
Once all applications are received, the judges of the Booker Prize 2022, chaired by Neil MacGregor, will help select our six groups. They are looking for the most interesting, passionate and wide-ranging set of readers possible, as well as those who will shout the loudest about this year’s Booker Prize shortlist on social media to help encourage even more people to pick up those books.
After we have chosen our six book clubs, two representatives of each club will be invited to attend the Booker Prize 2022 official shortlist announcement party at the Serpentine Pavilion, London, on September 6, where they will receive a set of copies of one of the shortlisted titles. The Booker Prize Foundation will cover the reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses involved in attendance by the representatives of the successful clubs. You can find more information for this in the terms and conditions below.
They will then be asked to read, discuss and review their assigned book in detail over the following month, sharing their views with the Booker Prize’s and The Reading Agency’s community of readers via social media and on the Booker Prize and the Reading Groups for Everyone website. The Booker Prize’s editorial team may wish to interview members of each of our chosen book clubs about the experience of taking part in our challenge. They may also wish to photograph or film members of each club.
Please do not enter if your club does not wish to engage with any of activities outlined above.
The judges will read and discuss all of the book clubs’ reviews of – and social media activity relating to – their assigned books. Two members of the club who, in the judges’ opinion, provided the most original and engaging reviews will be invited to attend the Booker Prize 2022 ceremony and dinner at The Roundhouse, London, on October 17. The Booker Prize Foundation will cover the reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses involved in attendance by the representatives of the successful club. You can find more information for this in the terms and conditions below.
How to enter
If you would like to apply to take part, please tell us more about your book club by filling in the form below, and submitting it to us before 12 August.
Create your own user feedback survey
You can also find the survey here.
The Booker Prize 2022 Book Club Challenge (“the Challenge”) – terms and conditions
General
1. Booker Prize Foundation (“BPF”) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (number 4213467) and also as a charity (number 1090059). Its registered office is First Floor, 10 Queen Street Place, London. EC4R 1BE. BPF is collaborating with The Reading Agency (registered charity in England and Wales no 1085443) in managing the Challenge, however BPF is the promoter (organiser) of the Challenge. By entering the Challenge, participants agree to these terms and conditions which constitute a contract between them and BPF.
2. Any personal date relating to participants which BPF processes in connection with the Challenge will only be used in accordance with BPF’s privacy policy.
3. The decisions of the judge (s) and of BPF in relation to all aspects of the Challenge and the implementation of these terms and conditions are final, and no correspondence or discussion (in any medium) will be entered into.
4. BPF does not accept any responsibility for any damage, loss, injury, or disappointment suffered by any participant in the Challenge, or as a result of participating in the events to which they are invited in the course of the Challenge; and this applies to any postponement or cancellation of those. BPF would take all reasonable steps to advise of any such postponement or cancellation as promptly as possible, but circumstances may arise where this is necessary at very short notice.
Eligibility
5. Only book clubs with at least 3 members may enter, and all members must be resident in the UK.
6. While the members of the book club may be any age, if the group is one of the six selected to participate in the Challenge, only representatives of the club aged 16 or above may attend the shortlist party on 6 September 2022 and, if the club wins, the award ceremony and dinner on 17 October 2022. If representatives under 18 are to attend these events, then BPF will require appropriate parent/guardian consent and/or chaperoning arrangements to be in place, and these will be determined in consultation with the individuals concerned at the appropriate time.
7. The Challenge is not open to book clubs which have a member or members who is an employee, and/ or a person involved in the governance of, and/or any provider of professional services to, BPF and/or The Reading Agency, (or in each case their household members)
8. BPF may disqualify any book club where it determines, or has reasonable grounds to suspect, it is ineligible. Depending on the timing and circumstances, this may result in any selection to participate being given to another book club, or any Challenge prize or prizes being given to an alternate winner.
What participation involves
9. The six book clubs will be notified of their selection for the Challenge by BPF no later than 5.30 pm on Friday 26 August 2022. This will be by email to the address given in their entry forms. Only the successful six will be notified, and regrettably if any entrant has not heard from BPF by this deadline, that book club has not been selected.
10. BPF will supply a maximum of 10 copies of the shortlist book allocated to the book club concerned and will not be able to supply any further copies. If the copies supplied are pre-publication proofs and/or publishers’ review copies, BPF will require these copies to be returned on the publication date, when BPF will replace them with retail copies (for information – to be eligible for the 2022 Booker Prize, the last date on which a shortlisted book can be published is 30 September 2022.) If a shortlist book has not yet been published when the book club to which it is allocated has been selected, BPF will advise the book club concerned of any protocol to be observed (eg in relation to posting images of the book) in championing the book. Any such protocol must be complied with, and failure to do so will result in immediate suspension of involvement in the Challenge by the book club concerned (and, depending on the circumstances, BPF may, at its sole discretion, select an alternative book club).
11. The shortlist party on 6 September 2022 and the awards ceremony and dinner on 17 October 2022 are by invitation only and do not otherwise involve any ticket or entry charge. BPF will cover the reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses involved in attendance by the representatives of the successful clubs. Travel must be by standard class only and accommodation must be organised in prior consultation with BPF. If travel by public transport is impossible, then reimbursement of expenses involved in any type of travel by car (including if applicable parking charges) must be agreed with BPF in writing (which includes by email) in advance. BPF has absolute discretion to cap any expenses (travel, accommodation, subsistence) as BPF determines to be reasonable – any such determination shall be final. Note that in making any such determination, BPF will bear in mind the comfort and convenience of those involved to ensure their experience is positive and enjoyable.
12. Only two representatives of the selected book clubs will be invited to the shortlist party, and only two representatives of the winning book club will be invited to the awards ceremony and dinner.
13. The members of the six selected book clubs are agreeing to undertake the activities described in the details of the Challenge under “How it Works” on the Challenge page on BPF’s website, www.thebookerprizes.com. If it becomes apparent to BPF that a selected book club is not engaging in the anticipated activities in the spirit of the Challenge as outlined, BPF may, depending on the prevailing circumstances and at its sole discretion, end the participation of that book club and replace it with another.
14. In participating in the Challenge, book clubs, and their individual members, warrant that they will not do or omit to do anything which may bring BPF or the Booker Prize into disrepute. This includes (but without limitation) ensuring that public discourse or content creation (whether on social platforms or otherwise):
a) does not infringe the intellectual property, privacy, or any other rights of any third party and/or
b) does not contain anything which is libellous, defamatory, obscene, indecent, or which constitutes a threat or harassment
and that permission has been obtained to use or feature any people, content or other material.
15. Participants in the Challenge agree that in relation to their social media post relating to the Challenge BPF may, indefinitely:
a) embed participants’ social media posts on BPF’s website and/or
b) use participants’ video footage from social media posts on BPF’s YouTube channel and/or
c) post video footage, text and images from participants’ social media posts (as a whole or in part) on BPF’s social channels.
BPF will give appropriate credit when using participants’ social media posts and will not give any third party any rights in relation to participants’ social media posts without prior written agreement (which pay be by email) with the participant concerned.
16. The winning book club will be notified by BPF no later than 5.30pm on Thursday 6 October 2022. The details of the representatives who will attend the award ceremony and dinner on 17 October 2022 must be given to BPF within the timeframe BPF stipulates at the time of this notification, and failure to do so may mean that the invitation to the representatives to attend may be withdrawn, at BPF’s sole discretion.
17. If exceptional circumstances arise so that:
a) no representatives (the maximum being two) of the winning book club can attend the awards ceremony and dinner, or
b) the awards ceremony and dinner are cancelled
BPF will endeavour, in good faith and in keeping with the spirit of the Challenge, to offer an alternative prize, but whether to do so and what the prize will be are at BPF’s sole discretion.
18. These terms and conditions are be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of England & Wales, and the courts of England & Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction in relation determining any question or issue in relation to them.
