Brandon Taylor hails from Alabama. He is the senior editor of Electric Literature's Recommended Reading and a staff writer at Literary Hub.

For his debut novel, Taylor tells the story of the biochemistry student Wallace, who after weeks of tireless lab work has to deal with its destruction by a torrid storm. But weather disasters are shown to be the least of Wallace's troubles. He's isolated himself from his friends as a defence mechanism against his painful past. But then he finds that history coming back to haunt him.

Here's what people have been saying about tonight's contenders:

Tonight's Booker Prize ceremony will feature an appearance from Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel The Remains of the Day won in 1989. The book tells the story of Stevens, a butler with an obsessive devotion to duty:

The Remains of the Day was featured on BBC Radio 4's Book Club - listen to the programme here:

Last year, the BBC asked a panel of novelists and literary experts to pick the 100 Novels That Shaped Their World. Find out which ten books they picked abut finding your place in the world.

• Coming of Age: 10 classic novels that chart the joy and jeopardy of youth

• Read an interview with Douglas Stuart, external on the Booker Prize website.

Image source, Clive Smith

Douglas Stuart grew up in Glasgow and now lives in New York, which he first made home in order to start his career in fashion design. He says the 1994 Booker winner How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman changed his life as it was one of the first times he saw his people and dialect on the page.

For his first move into novel writing, Stuart has taken that inspiration to write a story set in a poverty-stricken Glasgow. Here we follow Agnes Bain, who is descending into despair and alcoholism after the breakdown of her marriage. All but one of her children have been driven away by her deterioration, and that child Shuggie struggles to support his mother while suffering huge personal problems of his own.

Our live coverage of the ceremony begins at 7pm:

The University of Wolverhampton are asking people to share their favourite literary characters.

If you have a favourite character, why not join the discussion, external:

Image source, Brontë Parsonage Museum

Margaret is the chair of this year's panel of judges:

You can hear more from Margaret on judging the prize, and how lockdown meant that her panel of judges often had to read electronic files rather than physical books:

Mantel's The Mirror and the Light is the third novel in her trilogy about the Tudor lawyer and statesman Thomas Cromwell. The previous titles in the series both won the Booker Prize.

Earlier this year, Mantel featured in a special episode of the BBC's Arena documentary strand.

Earlier this year, Maaza spoke to BBC News about being nominated for the Booker Prize.

• You can listen to the full interview.

Image source, Nina Subin

Maaza Mengiste was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and now lives in New York. Her first novel was Beneath the Lion's Gaze, which in 2012 was named one of The Guardian's 10 best contemporary African books, external.

The Shadow King is about an orphan girl named Hirut living in Ethiopia in 1935 amid the threat of invasion by Mussolini. When the Ethiopian emperor goes into exile, Hirut disguises a peasant as him while she becomes his guard - only to find herself having to fight her own personal, unexpected war.

One of the perks of being shortlisted for the Booker is a hand-bound copy of your own novel.

For each of the past 29 Booker Prizes, members of the Designer Bookbinders society have created a bespoke edition of every title on the shortlist. Ahead of the 2018 ceremony, Fellow of the society Angela James revealed more about this centuries-old craft.

Great to see Bernardine keeping an eye on tonight's proceedings:

If you'd like to know more about last year's joint prize-winning novel by Bernardine Evaristo, it was recently featured on the BBC's World Book Club.

You can listen to the episode again:

Tell us who deserves to win tonight using the hashtag #2020BookerPrize

Last year, the BBC asked a panel of authors and critics to pick 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. Find out which ten books they chose about Life, Death & Other Worlds.

Read The View From Elsewhere: Ten Classic Stories of Other Worlds, then tell us what you think of the selection, external.

In our final Front Row debate of the evening, Elle Osili-Wood talks to her panel of authors and critics about how several of the titles on this year's Booker Prize shortlist deal with personal trauma, surviving conflict or imagining an apocalyptic world.

Listen to Booker Prize 2020: Fiction for our times

We're looking forward to a special appearance later:

When Burnt Sugar was published in July this year, Avni Doshi spoke to BBC Radio 4's Front Row about the the inspiration for her novel.

You can listen to the interview here: