WE SHOULD ALL BE READING WOMEN

Part of why I’m so happy to judge this year is the #ReadingWomen campaign. I read The Catcher In The Rye when I was 12 and felt such an affinity with the male character but the opposite rarely happens. Something like The Catcher In The Rye is considered this universal work of art whereas something like Little Women is considered only for girls.

THERE ARE STORIES I ALWAYS TURN TO

I’m a freakishly obsessive Virginia Woolf fan. I had a breakdown when I was 17 and her books made me realise other people had been through this stuff. So if I want to feel known I turn to Virginia Woolf, but if I want to be distracted it’s Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. I’m very into cosy murder. Dawn by Octavia E Butler is also the greatest science fiction book ever.

The winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced on 3 June.

Scarlett Curtis: “There is nothing that has shaped me as much as the books I’ve read”