The novels shortlisted and their authors.

Six authors have been selected as final candidates for the Goldsmiths Prize inaugural shortlist, as announced last Tuesday.

The Goldsmiths Prize, which was created by Goldsmiths, University of London and New Statesman magazine, was originally launched last January and announced by Booker Prize-winning novelist James Kelman.

Its goal is to celebrate creativity and innovation within writing, and to “reward fiction that breaks the mould”. The Golsmiths prize is also “giving a leg up to smaller publishers, who are doing so much of the most interesting work in British and Irish fiction today”, said Philip Maughan of the New Statesman.

The winner of this £10,000 prize is sought to represent excellence without conformity, representing fiction that should reflect the eccentric experimentalism of a modern equivalent to Sterne or Diderot.

Since the entry closing date on March 22, the 123 novels entered were reduced to six “boldly original works of fiction”.

The shortlist boasts an eclectic mix of writers, including Harvest by Jim Crace, said to be one of the favourites to win this year’s Man Booker Prize.

Also shortlisted are Exodus by Lars Iyer, A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride, Tapestry by Philip Terry, Red or Dead by David Peace, and Artful by Ali Smith.

Tim Parnell, Chair of the judging panel and head of the English and Comparative Literature department at Goldsmiths, said: “In the prize’s inaugural year, we are delighted to announce a shortlist that so clearly exemplifies the spirit of the award. All six books are strikingly original and all of them refuse the ready comforts of convention. Making full use of the resources and possibilities of the novel form, each writer has found the distinct idiom that their story demands.”

The winner of the Goldsmiths Prize will be announced on November 13.