Sydney Writers' Festival 2012

Some familiar names there, some less well known. Three of the authors have been short listed before (David Mitchell, Damon Galgut and Rose Tremain), Peter Carey has won the prize twice and Howard Jacobson has been longlisted twice. Great to see that Christos Tsiolkas has also been included with The Slap.

The chair of judges, Andrew Motion, comments:

"Here are thirteen exceptional novels - books we have chosen for their intrinsic quality, without reference to the past work of their authors. Wide-ranging in their geography and their concern, they tell powerful stories which make the familiar strange and cover an enormous range of history and feeling. We feel confident that they will provoke and entertain."

The Longlist includes:

Peter Carey Parrot and Olivier in America - Read an extract.

Emma Donoghue Room - Watch Emma Donoghue as she describes her new.

Helen Dunmore The Betrayal - Read an extract.

Damon Galgut In a Strange Room - Read a review of his new book.

Howard Jacobson The Finkler Question - Read a review here.

Andrea Levy The Long Song - Watch Andrea Levy read from her new book.

Tom McCarthy C - Watch Tom McCarthy describe and read from his new book.

David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - Watch a recent interview with David Mitchell.

Lisa Moore February - Listen to an interview with Lisa Moore.

Paul Murray Skippy Dies - Read an extract.

Rose Tremain Trespass - Rose Tremain explains how it feels to win a prize for her writing.

Christos Tsiolkas The Slap - Watch Christos Tsiolkas in conversation with Leigh Sales at SWF 2009.

You can see the previous winning titles here.

What do you think? Have you been provoked and entertained by these titles? Any surprises there? Who is your firm favourite to win? Or perhaps you can narrow it down to a shortlist (the official shortlist will be announced on the 7th September)?