Sarah Jessica Parker Says She Didn’t See Her Family for a Year When She Was a Booker Prize Judge
Sarah Jessica Parker Says She Didn’t See Her Family for a Year When She Was a Booker Prize Judge
Yamillah HurtadoTue, April 21, 2026 at 2:30 PM UTC
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Sarah Jessica Parker at the GLAAD's 40th Anniversary Gala in New York City in October 2025Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty -
Sarah Jessica Parker served as a judge for the 2025 Booker Prize, one of literature's most prestigious awards
The actress and publisher spoke of her experience as a judge at the 2026 L.A. Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 18
As a judge, Parker said she devoted her time to reading 153 books and didn’t see her family for a year
Sarah Jessica Parker read well over 100 books in just one year as a 2025 Booker Prize judge, and while she loved the experience, she’s uncertain she’d do anything like it again.
In a panel at the 2026 L.A. Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 18, the actress and SJP Lit publisher told Miwa Messer, host of the Barnes & Noble podcast Poured Over, that before she agrees to be a judge for another literary prize, she’d have to ask her family first.
“That’s where the sacrifice came,” Parker, 61, noted. “Yeah, I didn’t see them for a year.”
“They were great about it. They knew [it brought] such joy, not more joy than their company, but they understood. They really did. They would walk by and look at me and move on,” she said, laughing.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick with their three children, Tabitha, James and Marion Broderick, in New York City in December 2022Credit: Bruce Glikas/WireImage
In a series of interviews for The New York Times, Parker previously spoke of the life-changing experience of being a 2025 Booker Prize judge and reading 153 books alongside fellow judges Roddy Doyle, Ayọ̀bami Adébáyọ̀, Chris Power and Kiley Reid.
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She told the outlet that she often had to skip out on family engagements with her husband Matthew Broderick and their three children to read all the books required of her as a judge.
“My husband and children knew what this meant,” the Sex and the City star said. “No one tried to compete with the Booker. Anytime after dinner, when there was a discussion about what movie to watch, no one asked me. Everybody knew what I would be doing.”
She added, “It was lonely, which gave me some insight into what it must be to be a writer, which I always assumed was a solitary affair.”
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Parker recalled feeling a “joyful anxiety” before the panel’s shortlist meeting, in which they spent five hours on Zoom discussing which books should move forward in consideration.
They settled upon Flashlightby Susan Choi, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, Audition by Katie Kitamura, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller and Flesh by David Szalay for the shortlist.
Szalay’s novel was named the winner of the prestigious literary award.
Sarah Jessica Parker at New 42 Studio's 25th Anniversary Luncheon in New York City in September 2025Credit: John Nacion/Getty
In her live conversation with Messer, Parker said being part of the 2025 Booker Prize raised her standards as both a publisher and reader.
“When you’re reading that many books that are great, you think, ‘Wow, it really can be done,’” she explained. “It’s so impactful. It’s so thrilling when a book is great that you just want every author to be that good, to be that important or arresting or compelling.”
“We’re reading so much. We’re reading fast but thoughtfully, and we saw how many great voices there are,” Parker continued. “When that was done, if I’m picking a book up, I’m asking a lot of the author. I’m asking not just as a publisher but as a reader, which is the most important thing of all.”
In 2020, Parker launched SJP Lit, an imprint of Zando Projects, which aims to publish “sweeping, expansive, thought-provoking and discussion-driven stories that are inclusive of international and underrepresented voices,” according to its website.
“We try to find books that we're really excited about, that really wow us immediately,” Parker said during an SJP Lit event in 2025. “We hope we get the chance to publish them and either introduce a writer to readers or introduce a writer who's debuting as a writer… every time a writer says yes, it's a very big deal to us.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
