Friday, August 12, 2005

Booker Longlist Announced

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The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for fiction was announced August 10 in London. The Observer stated that 2005 is the “richest year for contemporary British and Commonwealth fiction since the launch of the Booker Prize in 1969”. This year, 17 books were chosen from 109 entries. The winner will receive a prize of 50,000 pounds sterling (about $120,000 Canadian); the six shortlisted authors will receive 2,500 pounds each.

In order to qualify for the Booker prize, the author must be a citizen of Great Britain or the Commonwealth, and have written a book within the past year. Books are nominated by the publisher and each publisher may nominate two books per year. The exception to this is previous Booker winners and authors who have been shortlisted within the last ten years; they can nominate themselves.

The 2005 longlist is as follows:
Aw, Tash The Harmony Silk Factory
Banville, John The Sea
Barnes, Julian Arthur & George
Barry, Sebastian A Long Long Way
Coetzee, J. M. Slow Man
Cusk, Rachel In the Fold
Ishiguro, Kazuo Never Let Me Go
Jacobson, Dan All For Love
Lewycka, Marina A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Mantel, Hilary Beyond Black
McEwan, Ian Saturday
Meek, James The People’s Act of Love
Rushdie, Salman Shalimar The Clown
Smith, Ali The Accidental
Smith, Zadie On Beauty
Thompson, Harry This Thing Of Darkness
Wall, William This Is The Country

The above will be narrowed down to a shortlist on Thursday, September 8, and the winner will be announced Monday, October 10 at Guildhall, London; a live broadcast will be aired on both BBC TWO and BBC FOUR.

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