International Booker Shortlist Announced
Posted on April 14, 2007
Margaret Atwood and Philip Roth have both made the shortlist for the International Booker Prize, according to the BBC. The international prize is awarded every two years to a living author whose work is in English (or has been translated into English). The prize is given for the body of an author's work.
The winner of the �60,000 prize is chosen from the 15-strong shortlist and will be announced in June. Others on the shortlist include Doris Lessing, Peter Carey, Salman Rushdie and John Banville. The original Booker Prize is open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth.The full shortlist of authors is: Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, John Banville, Michael Tournier, Peter Carey, Carlos Fuentes, Ian McEwan, Harry Mulisch, Doris Lessing, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Amos Oz, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, and Don DeLillo.The international award includes writers from Canada, Britain, the US, Australia, Ireland, France, Israel, Mexico, Nigeria and the Netherlands. In a statement, the judging panel - academic Elaine Showalter and novelists Nadine Gordimer and Colm Toibin - said the nominees were "diverse in nationality, language, themes and techniques but united in their dedication to the power of the word". The inaugural prize for the International Booker was won in 2005 by Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.