THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2013

Finalists’ List Announced

Ten writers are on the judges’ list of finalists under serious consideration for the fifth Man Booker International Prize, the £60,000 award which recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction.

The authors come from nine countries with a Swiss writer included on the list for the first time

Marilynne Robinson is the only writer to have appeared on a previous list of finalists, in 2011
Marie NDiaye, at 45, is the youngest author ever to be a Man Booker International nominee  

Yan Lianke and Vladimir Sorokin have both had books banned in their home countries of China and Russia
The Kannada language is represented with the inclusion of Indian writer, U.R. Ananthamurthy

The finalists’ list is announced by the chair of judges, Sir Christopher Ricks, at a press conference hosted at the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival in India, today, Thursday 24 January, 2013.

The ten authors on the list are:

 U.R. Ananthamurthy (India)

Aharon Appelfeld (Israel)

Lydia Davis (USA)

Intizar Husain (Pakistan)

Yan Lianke (China)
 Marie NDiaye (France)
Josip Novakovich (Canada)

Marilynne Robinson (USA)
Vladimir Sorokin (Russia)

Peter Stamm (Switzerland)

The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2013 consists of the scholar and literary critic, Sir Christopher Ricks (Chair); author and essayist, Elif Batuman; writer and broadcaster, Aminatta Forna; novelist, Yiyun Li and author and academic, Tim Parks.

Announcing the list, Christopher Ricks comments: ‘Each is the author of a substantial body of published work, whether novels or short stories, either written in or translated into English. Some of these men and women are in their eighties, the youngest in their forties and fifties. They write in ways that are astonishingly different.’

The Man Booker International Prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language. 

The winner is chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel; there are no submissions from publishers.  Philip Roth won the prize in 2011, Alice Munro in 2009, Chinua Achebe in 2007 and Ismail Kadaré won the inaugural prize in 2005.  In addition, there is a separate award for translation and, if applicable, the winner may choose a translator of his or her work into English to receive a prize of £15,000.

The Man Booker International Prize winner will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on 22 May.

www.themanbookerprize.com

Comment on the list in The Guardian