International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Shortlist Announced

Diaz, Pulitzer Winner, Makes Shortlist in EU100,000 Irish Award By James Pressley in Bloomberg News

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Junot Diaz’s “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle award, was selected as one of eight finalists in the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, worth 100,000 euros (US$132,200).
Diaz joined David Leavitt and a mix of authors born in countries as diverse as France and Pakistan in the final round of the contest, billed as the world’s richest prize for a single work of fiction published in English.

First awarded in 1996, the IMPAC award is meant to promote excellence in world literature. The contest is managed by Dublin City Libraries and draws on nominations from librarians around the globe. This year’s 146 nominations came from 157 public library systems in 117 cities worldwide, the organizers said in an e-mailed news release.

Diaz, one of four Americans on the shortlist, first burst on the literary scene in 1996 with a book of short stories, “Drown.” He then spent 10 years writing “Oscar Wao” (Riverhead), the story of a geeky boy from a Dominican family who grows up in New Jersey, as Diaz did.
Leavitt was chosen for “The Indian Clerk” (Bloomsbury), a fictionalized account of the relationship between reclusive Cambridge mathematician G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan, a young clerk in Madras who turns out to be a math whiz.

The other finalists are Jean Echenoz for “Ravel” (New Press);

Mohsin Hamid for “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” (Hamish Hamilton, Harcourt);

Travis Holland for “The Archivist’s Story” (Dial);

Roy Jacobsen for “The Burnt-Out Town of Miracles” (John Murray);

Indra Sinha for “Animal’s People” (Simon & Schuster);

and Michael Thomas for “Man Gone Down” (Grove/Atlantic).

The winner will be announced by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Eibhlin Byrne, on June 11. Previous winners include “De Niro’s Game” by Rawi Hage (2008), Per Petterson’s “Out Stealing Horses” (2007), and Colm Toibin’s “The Master” (2006).

Visit the IMPAC website for more.