| Man Booker Prize | |
|---|---|
| 200px | |
| Awarded for | Best full-length English novel |
| Presented by | Man Group |
| Location | Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, and Zimbabwe |
| First awarded | 1968 |
| Official website | themanbookerprize.com |
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.[1] The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success; therefore, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.[2] In contrast to literary prizes in the United States, the Booker Prize is greeted with great anticipation and fanfare.[3] It is also a mark of distinction for authors to be selected for inclusion in the shortlist or even to be nominated for the "longlist".
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History and administration [link]
The prize was originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, after the company Booker-McConnell began sponsoring the event in 1968;[4] it became commonly known as the "Booker Prize" or simply "the Booker." When administration of the prize was transferred to the Booker Prize Foundation in 2002, the title sponsor became the investment company Man Group, which opted to retain "Booker" as part of the official title of the prize. The foundation is an independent registered charity funded by the entire profits of Booker Prize Trading Ltd., of which it is the sole shareholder.[5] The prize money awarded with the Booker Prize was originally £21,000, and was subsequently raised to £50,000 in 2002 under the sponsorship of the Man Group, making it one of the world's richest literary prizes.
The rules of the Booker changed in 1971; previously, it had been awarded retrospectively to books published prior to the year in which the award was given. In 1971 the year of eligibility was changed to the same as the year of the award; in effect, this meant that books published in 1970 were not considered for the Booker in either year. The Booker Prize Foundation announced in January 2010 the creation of a special award called the "Lost Man Booker Prize," with the winner chosen from a longlist of 22 novels published in 1970.[6]
The longlist was not publicly revealed until 2001.[7]
Controversies [link]
In 1972 the winning author John Berger, known for his Marxist politics, protested during his acceptance speech against Booker McConnell. He blamed Booker's 130 years of sugar production in the Caribbean for the region's modern poverty.[8] Berger donated half of his £5,000 prize to the British Black Panther movement, because they had a socialist and revolutionary perspective in agreement with his own.[4][8]
In 1980 Anthony Burgess (Earthly Powers) refused to attend the ceremony unless it was confirmed to him in advance whether he had won.[4] He was one of two considered likely to win, the other being William Golding's Rites of Passage. The judges decided only 30 minutes before the ceremony, giving the prize to Golding. Both novels had been seen as favourites to win leading up to the prize and the dramatic "literary battle" between two senior authors made front page news.[4][9]
The award has been criticized for the types of books it covers. In 1981 nominee John Banville wrote a letter to The Guardian requesting that the prize be given to him so that he could use the money to buy every copy of the longlisted books in Ireland and donate them to libraries, "thus ensuring that the books not only are bought but also read — surely a unique occurrence."[4][10] In 1994, journalist Richard Gott described the prize as "a significant and dangerous iceberg in the sea of British culture that serves as a symbol of its current malaise."[4][11]
Judging [link]
The selection process for the winner of the prize commences with the formation of an advisory committee which includes an author, two publishers, a literary agent, a bookseller, a librarian, and a chairperson appointed by the Booker Prize Foundation. The advisory committee then selects the judging panel, the membership of which changes each year, although on rare occasions a judge may be selected a second time. Judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and leading public figures.
The winner is usually announced at a ceremony in London's Guildhall, usually in early October.
Winners [link]
In 1993 to mark the 25th anniversary it was decided to choose a Booker of Bookers Prize. Three previous judges of the award, Malcolm Bradbury, David Holloway and W. L. Webb, met and chose Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (the 1981 winner) as "the best novel out of all the winners".[12]
A similar prize known as The Best of the Booker was awarded in 2008 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the prize. A short list of six winners was chosen and the decision was left to a public vote. The winner was again Midnight's Children.[13][14]
- ^ In 1971, the nature of the Prize was changed so that it was awarded to novels published in that year instead of in the previous year; therefore, no novel published in 1970 could win the Booker Prize. This was rectified in 2010 by the awarding of the "Lost Man Booker Prize" to J. G. Farrell's Troubles.[15]
Related awards [link]
A separate prize for which any living author in the world may qualify, the Man Booker International Prize, was inaugurated in 2005 and is awarded biennially. A Russian version of the Booker Prize was created in 1992 called the Booker-Open Russia Literary Prize, also known as the Russian Booker Prize. In 2007, Man Group plc established the Man Asian Literary Prize, an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year.
Cheltenham Booker Prize [link]
As part of The Times' Literature Festival in Cheltenham, a Booker event is held on the last Saturday of the festival. Four guest speakers/judges debate a shortlist of four books from a given year from before the introduction of the Booker prize, and a winner is chosen. Unlike the real Man Booker, authors from outside the Commonwealth are also considered. In 2008, the winner for 1948 was Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country, beating Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, Graham Greene's The Heart of the Matter and Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One.
See also [link]
- List of British literary awards
- List of literary awards
- The Commonwealth Writers Prize
- The Costa Book Awards
- The Prix Goncourt
- Governor General's Awards
- The Scotiabank Giller Prize
- The Miles Franklin Award
- Russian Booker Prize
- The Samuel Johnson Prize (non-fiction)
For a more comprehensive overview a list of literary awards is available.
References [link]
- ^ "Booker Prize: rules". bookerprize.com. https://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/about/rules-and-entry. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
- ^ "The Booker's Big Bang". New Statesman. 9 October 2008. https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/10/booker-prize-british-literary. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
- ^ Hoover, Bob (10 February 2008). "'Gathering' storm clears for prize winner Enright". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. https://old.post-gazette.com/pg/08041/855698-44.stm. Retrieved 10 February 2008. "In America, literary prizes are greeted with the same enthusiasm as a low Steelers draft choice. Not so in the British Isles, where the $98,000 Man Booker Fiction Prize can even push Amy Winehouse off the front page -- at least for a day. The atmosphere around the award approaches sports-championship proportions, with London bookies posting the ever-changing odds on the nominees. Then, in October when the winner is announced live on the BBC TV evening news, somebody always gets ticked off."
- ^ a b c d e f "Man Booker Prize: a history of controversy, criticism and literary greats". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). 18 October 2011. https://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2011/oct/18/booker-prize-history-controversy-criticism. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
- ^ "Booker Prize: legal information". bookerprize.com. https://www.themanbookerprize.com/legal. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
- ^ "The Lost Man Booker Prize announced". bookerprize.com. https://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1317. Retrieved 31 January 2010.
- ^ Yates, Emma (15 August 2001). "Booker Prize longlist announced for first time". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). https://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/aug/15/bookerprize2001.thebookerprize. Retrieved 15 August 2001.
- ^ a b White, Michael (25 November 1972). "Berger's black bread". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). https://archive.guardian.co.uk/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=R1VBLzE5NzIvMTEvMjUjQXIwMTEwMA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom. p.11
- ^ "Lord of the novel wins the Booker prize". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). 22 October 1980. https://archive.guardian.co.uk/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=R1VBLzE5ODAvMTAvMjIjQXIwMDEwNA==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom. p.1
- ^ "A novel way of striking a 12,000 Booker Prize bargain", The Guardian, 14 October 1981, p.14
- ^ "Novel way to run a lottery". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). 5 September 1994. https://archive.guardian.co.uk/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=R1VBLzE5OTQvMDkvMDUjQXIwMjIwMQ==&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom. p.22
- ^ Mullan, John (12 July 2008). "Lives & letters, Where are they now?". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). https://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/12/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview31. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
- ^ "Best of the Booker". The Guardian (Guardian Media Group). 21 February 2008. https://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2258500,00.html. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
- ^ "Rushdie wins Best of Booker prize". BBC News (BBC). 10 July 2008. https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7499495.stm. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
- ^ Melvern, Jack (20 May 2010). "J G Farrell wins Booker prize for 1970, 30 year after his death". The Times. https://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article7131357.ece. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
Further reading [link]
- Lee, Hermione (1981). The Booker Prize: Matters of judgment. Times Literary Supplement, Reprinted 22 October 2008
External links [link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Man Booker Prize |
- Official website
- The Booker Prize Archive at Oxford Brookes University
- A primer on the Man Booker Prize and critical review of literature
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https://wn.com/Man_Booker_Prize
2012 Man Booker Prize
The 2012 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 16 October 2012. A longlist of twelve titles was announced on 25 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 11 September. The jury was chaired by Sir Peter Stothard, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, accompanied by literary critics Dinah Birch and Bharat Tandon, historian and biographer Amanda Foreman, and Dan Stevens, actor of Downton Abbey fame with a background English Literature studies. The jury was faced with the controversy of the 2011 jury, whose approach had been seen as overly populist. Whether or not as a response to this, the 2012 jury strongly emphasised the value of literary quality and linguistic innovation as criteria for inclusion.
The winner was Hilary Mantel, an early favourite, for her book Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to her novel Wolf Hall, which won the award in 2009. Mantel became the first woman, and the first Briton, to win the prize twice. A strong challenger to Mantel was established writer Will Self, who was nominated for the first time. Other shortlisters included second-time nominee Tan Twan Eng, Deborah Levy, who returned from a long hiatus of publishing, and novelist débutantes Alison Moore and Jeet Thayil. In the days and weeks leading up to the announcement of the winner, both media commentators and bookmakers considered Mantel and Self favourites to win, with the other four nominees ranked as outsiders.
2013 Man Booker Prize
The 2013 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded on 15 October 2013 to Eleanor Catton for her novel The Luminaries. A longlist of thirteen titles was announced on 23 July, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles, announced on 10 September. The jury was chaired by Robert Macfarlane, who was joined by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Natalie Haynes, Martha Kearney, and Stuart Kelly. The shortlist contained great geographical and ethnic diversity, with Zimbabwean-born NoViolet Bulawayo, Eleanor Catton of New Zealand, Jim Crace from England, Indian American Jhumpa Lahiri, Canadian-American Ruth Ozeki and Colm Tóibín of Ireland.
Judging panel
On 21 November 2012, it was announced that Robert Macfarlane would chair the panel of judges that would decide the winner of the 2013 award. Macfarlane declared that he felt "very proud indeed to be chairing this prize, which has done so much to shape the modern literary landscape." On 17 December, he was joined by four other judges: biographer and critic Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, journalist Martha Kearney, and writer, critic and reviewer Stuart Kelly. "Part of the reason the prize is heralded internationally", the announcement read, "is because the judges stand as a guarantee of literary weight and seriousness of intent." The judges' backgrounds – as academics, professional writers and journalists – were emphasized as essential to their role as reviewers. "We are all looking forward to the 10 months, 140 novels and many meetings and conversations that lie ahead of us," Macfarlane said, "as we search for the very best of contemporary fiction."
2014 Man Booker Prize
The 2014 Man Booker Prize for fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 14 October 2014. Until 2014, only novels written in English and from authors in the Commonwealth, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe were eligible for consideration; however from 2014 rules were changed to extend eligibility to any novel written in English. It is therefore the first time in the award's history that authors from the United States of America have been included.
Judging panel
The panel of judges is chaired by A. C. Grayling and comprises Jonathan Bate, Sarah Churchwell, Daniel Glaser, Alastair Niven and Erica Wagner.
Nominees
Longlist
A longlist of thirteen titles was announced on 23 July 2014.
Shortlist
The shortlist of six novels was announced on 9 September 2014. It was composed of:
Winner
On 14 October, chair judge A. C. Grayling announced that Australian author Richard Flanagan had won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his book The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The judges spent three hours deliberating before announcing the winner. Grayling described the historical novel as a "remarkable love story as well as a story about human suffering and comradeship".
