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Colleague’s novel longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction

05 Mar 2026

Celebrating Dr Sheena Kalayil’s outstanding achievement in contemporary storytelling, this World Book Day

Headshot of Sheena, next to the red front cover of THE OTHERS

We are delighted to share that Dr Sheena Kalayil, Senior Lecturer in the University Centre of Academic English (UCAE) and the Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies (CTIS) here at the university, has been longlisted for the prestigious 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her fourth novel, THE OTHERS, is based around three young people in 1989 East Germany, as they’re drawn into a dangerous political moment.

This achievement lands on World Book Day 2026, and just ahead of International Women’s Day this Sunday 8 March, which is a great opportunity to celebrate women’s contributions to our university, community, and society as a whole.

Dr Sheena Kalayil, on the themes of her book and why she was inspired to write it:

“THE OTHERS is set in a small city on the Baltic Sea in the months before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and uses the real history of the collapse of East Germany (the DDR) as a backdrop for the development of a love triangle between three young people from vastly different backgrounds. Two of the characters, Armando and Lolita, have chosen to live and work and study in the DDR, while the East German, Theo, dreams of escaping!

THE OTHERS shows how the Eastern Bloc countries were often havens for students and workers from countries like Cuba, Vietnam, Angola, as well as Mozambique (Armando) and India (Lolita). I wanted to explore different perspectives on a change in the world order. While it has been well-documented that East Germans often tried to escape over or under the Berlin Wall, it is less well known that more than 5000 tried to swim or sail across the Baltic Sea to Denmark. In this way, THE OTHERS speaks to current discourses on migration and belonging, through the personal dilemmas we will all recognise.”

Further information

It’s not too late to get involved with International Women’s Day at the University. Check out our events still to come: