2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction - longlist announced

www.themanbookerprize.com

The longlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction – the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ - is announced today, Tuesday 26 July.  The 13 books on the list include: one former Man Booker Prize winner; two previously shortlisted writers and one longlisted author; four first time novelists and three Canadian writers.  The list also includes three new publishers to the prize – Oneworld, Sandstone Press and Seren Books.

The titles were chosen by a panel of five judges chaired by author and former Director-General of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington.

A total of 138 books, seven of which were called in by the judges, were considered for the ‘Man Booker Dozen’ longlist.  They are:

Author                                    Title (Publisher)

Julian Barnes                         The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)

Sebastian Barry                    On Canaan’s Side (Faber)

Carol Birch                            Jamrach’s Menagerie (Canongate Books)

Patrick deWitt                       The Sisters Brothers (Granta)

Esi Edugyan                           Half Blood Blues (Serpent’s Tail - Profile)

Yvvette Edwards                 A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)

Alan Hollinghurst                  The Stranger’s Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan)

Stephen Kelman                  Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)

Patrick McGuinness            The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)

A.D. Miller                              Snowdrops (Atlantic)

Alison Pick                             Far to Go (Headline Review)

Jane Rogers              The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)

D.J. Taylor                              Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

The chair of judges, Dame Stella Rimington, comments:

“We are delighted by the quality and breadth of our longlist, which emerged from an impassioned discussion. The list ranges from the Wild West to multi-ethnic London via post-Cold War Moscow and Bucharest, and includes four first novels.”

The four first time writers on the list are: Stephen Kelman, A.D. Miller, Yvvette Edwards and Patrick McGuinness.  Canadian author Alison Pick, like McGuinness, is a published poet and is joined by fellow Canadians, Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan, on the longlist.

The list includes one former winner, Alan Hollinghurst, who won the prize in 2004 for The Line of Beauty.  He was also shortlisted in 1994 for The Folding Star.  Two previously shortlisted authors also make the list:  Irish writer Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture, 2008 and A Long Long Way, 2005) and Julian Barnes (Arthur and George, 2005, England, England, 1998 and Flaubert’s Parrot, 1984).  Carol Birch was longlisted in 2003 for Turn Again Home.

The shortlist of six authors will be announced on Tuesday 6 September at a press conference at Man Group’s London headquarters.  The winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on Tuesday 18 October at a dinner at London’s Guildhall and will be broadcast on the BBC.

The winner will receive £50,000 and each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, will receive £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their book.

The judges for the 2011 Prize are writer and journalist, Matthew d’Ancona; author, Susan Hill; author and politician, Chris Mullin and Head of Books at the Daily Telegraph, Gaby Wood.  Dame Stella Rimington is the Chair.

For further information about the prize please visit www.themanbookerprize.com or follow the prize on Twitter at twitter.com/ManBookerPrize