Shock As Man Booker Prize Plans To Accept Works By American Writers

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The British literary world has been stunned by news that the Man Booker prize is set to allow American writers to enter from next year, with authors questioning whether it would lose its "character" and even prevent the emergence of domestic talent.


Independent

Telegraph


And US report from Shelf Awareness:

Man Booker to Include U.S. Writers

Next year's Man Booker Prize, the preeminent international English-language book prize, will be open to U.S. authors for the first time, according to many press reports in the U.K. The Man Booker Prize organization has not confirmed the reports but says "some changes" to the prize will be announced on Wednesday.

Reaction has been mixed. Some authors and others say they prefer continuing to limit the prize to British, Irish and Commonwealth authors. For one, Jim Crace, who is on this year's Booker shortlist, told the Independent, "If you open the Booker prize to all people writing in the English language, it would be a fantastic overview of English language literature, but it would lose a focus. I'm very fond of the sense of the Commonwealth. There's something in there that you would lose if you open it up to American authors."

Some believe the limitation is anachronistic. As the Sunday Times of London pointed out: "Four of this year's six short-listed authors, who were announced last week, live and work in the United States. Three were born in either a Commonwealth country or Ireland. Another was born in America of a U.S. father and a Japanese mother but holds both U.S. and Canadian passports."

Others say the possible move to include Americans is a reaction to the creation of the Folio Prize, "the first major English language book prize open to writers from around the world," which will be awarded for the first time next year