Man Booker International Prize Announces Finalists

WASHINGTON D.C., Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Eighteen authors have made it on to the Judges' List of contenders for the first ever Man Booker International Prize. They come from thirteen countries and ten are writers in translation.

The Judges' List was announced by the chair of judges, Professor John Carey, at a press conference at Georgetown University, Washington, DC today (Friday 18th February, 2005).

   The eighteen authors on the list are:

   Margaret Atwood
   Saul Bellow
   Gabriel Garcia Marquez
   Gunter Grass
   Ismail Kadare
   Milan Kundera
   Stanislaw Lem
   Doris Lessing
   Ian McEwan
   Naguib Mahfouz
   Tomas Eloy Martinez
   Kenzaburo Oe
   Cynthia Ozick
   Philip Roth
   Muriel Spark
   Antonio Tabucchi
   John Updike
   A.B. Yehoshua

The judging panel for the 2005 Man Booker International Prize is: Professor John Carey (Chair); writer, novelist and editor, Alberto Manguel; and writer and academic, Azar Nafisi.

Professor John Carey comments:

"For us, these are eighteen authors who combine uniqueness and universality and remind us irresistibly of the joy of reading."

The Man Booker Prize has a long-standing relationship with Georgetown University via a course taught by Fr. Alvaro Ribeiro, S.J., on the topic of the prize. Since 1995, Fr. Ribeiro has taught advanced seminars at Georgetown entitled "Booker Prize Novels", in which students study Man Booker Prize novels and analyze the cultural, commercial and literary factors that impact on the prize's judges, authors and sponsors.

Harvey McGrath, Chairman, Man Group plc comments:

"From our early meetings with the Trustees of the Booker Prize Foundation, it has been clear that we all share a common desire to more widely encourage interest in contemporary fiction by raising the Man Booker profile internationally. We are delighted to see that shared aspiration become reality today with the publication of the Judges' List of Contenders for the first Man Booker International Prize. We are particularly pleased to be making today's announcement in the historic surroundings of Washington's Georgetown University both because of the long-standing relationships we have had here, and because this venue underlines the international character of the Prize.

"We are confident that the Man Booker International Prize will swiftly establish itself as an important part of the global literary landscape."

The Man Booker International Prize was announced in June 2004 and will recognize one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. Worth 60,000 pounds Sterling to the winner, the prize will be awarded once 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 first winner of The Man Booker International Prize 2005 will be announced in June in London and the prize will be awarded at a dinner later that month. The prize is sponsored by the Man Group, which also sponsors the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

The Man Booker International Prize differs from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that it highlights one writer's continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. Both prizes strive to recognize and reward literary excellence.

   -- The Judges
      John Carey is the UK's most eminent literary critic. He is also a
      broadcaster and the author of many books. He was Merton Professor of
      English Literature at the University of Oxford from 1976-2001 and
      chaired the Booker Prize in 1982 and in 2003.

      Azar Nafisi is a visiting fellow, professorial lecturer, and the
      director of The Dialogue Project: The Culture of Democracy in Muslim
      Societies at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins
      University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in
      Washington, DC.

      Alberto Manguel is a writer, novelist, translator and editor.  He has
      received numerous awards and honours from around the world, including
      the Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2004), Premio
      German Sanchez Ruiperez for best literary criticism (Spain, 2002) and
      the Prix Roger Caillois (France, 2004).  He has also been awarded a
      Guggenheim Fellowship.

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