The jury for the Folio Prize, worth £40,000 and in its first year, includes distinguished international novelists and critics.
Sarah Hall, one of the judges of
the inaugural Folio Prize Photo: Richard
Thwaites
The Folio Prize
has today announced the panel of judges for the award's inaugural year.
The poet, novelist and critic Lavinia Greenlaw has been drawn as chair of a jury
comprising international writers Michael Chabon, Sarah Hall, Nam Le and Pankaj
Mishra.
The Folio Prize, worth £40,000, is the first major English-language book
prize open to writers from all over the world. Submission criteria are only that
the book is fiction and in English, regardless of form or the nationality of the
author. It was created by the Literature Prize Foundation, a registered charity
whose aim is to bring great writing and an enthusiasm for reading to the public
- and announced, somewhat controversially, in apparent counterpoint to the
judging of the Man Booker Prize in 2011. Since then, members of that jury have
been invited to become part of the Folio Academy, a permanent body from which a
team of judges is selected each year by lot.
Andrew Kidd, agent, former publisher and the prize's founder, said: “I cannot
imagine a more dynamic group to fulfil the prize's aim of connecting great new
writing with readers”.
Michael Chabon, the American author of such daring and critically acclaimed
novels as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Wonder Boys, said upon
his selection as one of this year's judges that "great literature respects no
borders or boundaries, and it's a thrill to be a part of the first literary
prize designed to honour that crucial disrespect".
Sarah Hall, who was
recently chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists,
anticipates that “as a reader and a judge you have to transcend personal taste
and preferences, and consider the particular vision, ambition and execution of
each work”.
Uniquely among literary prizes, the books to be considered are nominated by
members of the Academy - most of whom are writers themselves, and who are
recused from judging if they have a book published in the course of the year for
which their name has been drawn. The academicians are asked to nominate up to
three books, and to rate them in order of preference. The 60 books with the most
nominations will become the pool from which the shortlist is drawn - with a
further 20 slots taken up by books successfully championed by their publishers.
Lavinia Greenlaw describes the nomination procedure as reflecting "how closely
writing is bound up with reading, and the pleasure we all take in discovering
and sharing books”.
The Academy comprises well over a hundred members. Earlier this year its composition sparked a row, when Mariella Frostrup, who was not invited to join its ranks, accused the organisers of being elitist. “There’s no such thing as a good book that doesn’t entertain,” she said.
The Academy comprises well over a hundred members. Earlier this year its composition sparked a row, when Mariella Frostrup, who was not invited to join its ranks, accused the organisers of being elitist. “There’s no such thing as a good book that doesn’t entertain,” she said.
