On Tuesday night in London, English author Howard Jacobson was awarded the 2010 Man Booker Prize for his novel, The Finkler Question.
The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded to the best original novel written in English by a citizen of one of the 54 member nations of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe. The first prize is £50,000 (approximately $80,000). The other finalists each receive £2,500 (approximately $4,000).
The other finalists for the 2010 Man Booker Prize were:
- Peter Carey for Parrot and Olivier in America (Australia)
- Emma Donoghue for Room (Canada)
- Damon Galgut for In a Strange Room (South Africia)
- Andrea Levy for The Long Song (England)
- Tom McCarthy for C (England)
Publishers Weekly had a very interesting little article yesterday which reported that the judging panel had to contact the publishers of fourteen books to ask that those works be formally submitted for review. Two of those fourteen turned out to be finalists for this year's prize, including the winner.
That's right. Bloomsbury Publishing had to be asked to submit The Finkler Question and HarperCollins had to be asked to submit Emma Donoghue's Room.
A total of 138 books were reviewed by the judging panel for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.
Go here to read Publishers Weekly's Morning Report.
Go here to read Judge Frances Wilson's account in the Telegraph of the selection of the winner.
2 comments:
On the flip side, I thought it was a well-known "secret" by now that publishers are given x slots per year for the prestigious book awards. So Random House may get two, say, and a smaller press may get one. Pity the literary gem that comes in late in the voting year as a publisher may have already filled its slots with other books by then.
When I have some time, I'll go see if I can hunt up the article where I read this. It was a reliable source.
Kaz: I'd be interested to see that article when you find it.
Thanks!
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