The winner of Man Booker International Prize will be announced in london on May 19, 2015. ANANYA BORGOHAIN lists some important and interesting facts about the prize and nominees
As they announce the nominees for the Man Booker International prize 2015, there is an overwhelming and inescapable list of firsts associated with it. The 10 nominated authors come from 10 different countries, among which, nationalities from libya, Mozambique, Guadeloupe, Hungary, South Africa and Congo are listed for the first time. And all of the 10 are finalists for the award for the first time. In fact, 80 per cent of the writings of said authors has been translated into English for the first time.
There is a substantial amount of difference between the Man Booker Prize and the Man Booker International Prize. The former was applicable to writers from the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe and has now been extended to writers across the world. The Man Booker International Prize, on the other hand, has always been applicable to writers of all nationalities. It is announced in every two years to a living author whose works have been published either in English or whose English translations are available. Unlike the Man Booker which awards a particular book, the Man Booker International rewards an author’s entire body of work. The prize is worth £60,000 and the judging panel does not accept submissions from publishers.
The Man Booker Prize e-council includes former judges and winners of both the Man Booker and Man Booker International Awards. This year, Hedge Fund Philanthropy will be sponsoring the prize and the judges panel includes Professor Marina Warner (Chair), novelist Nadeem Aslam, novelist, critic and Professor of World literature in English at Oxford University, Elleke Boehmer, Editorial Director of the New York Review Classics series, Edwin Frank, and Professor of Arabic and Comparative literature at SOAS, University of london, Wen-chin Ouyang. An author can only win once. Beginning from 2005 with Albanian author Ismail Kadare, the award has been won by Chinua Achebe in 2007, Alice Munro in 2009, Philip Roth in 2011, and lydia Davis in 2013. There is also an award for translation and, if applicable, the winner may choose a translator of his or her work into English to receive a prize of £15,000. Here are the nominees:
Amitav Ghosh (India)
Arguably the most inspiring name in Indian writings in English, Amitav Ghosh’s body of work exuberates the finest of Indian postcolonial, postmodern fiction. Born in Calcutta and having grown up in India, Bangladesh and Sri lanka, Ghosh, 53, studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages and he has served on the Jury of the locarno Film Festival (Switzerland) and the Venice Film Festival (2001). An active blogger, he has also written for The New Yorker, The New Republic and The New York Times. Previously nominated for the Man Booker for The Sea of Poppies (2008), the third part of his historical fiction known as the ‘Ibis Trilogy’, Flood of Fire, will be out this year.
Hoda Barakat (lebanon)
living in exile from her home country, lebanese author Hoda Barakat, 63, lives in France today. She originally writes in Arabic, about her personal experiences in the Civil War although her protagonists are always men from marginalised sections. Considered to be one of the most pertinent names in Middle-Eastern literature, she is as respected in France. Her Hajar al-Dahik (The Stone of laughter), is the first Arabic novel with a gay protagonist. The setting of the works is usually lebanon.
César Aira (Argentina)
Born in 1949, César Aira, is a reputed name in Argentine Comparative literature and has around 80 books to his credit. His plots are famous for being supremely bizarre and deeply experimental in nature. He spent several years translating bestsellers, literary fiction and technical books, until he started his own writing career in the 1980s. In fact, he is also known to begin a work and finish it in a straight schedule, a practice he calls his automatism.
Mia Couto (Mozambique)
Mia Couto’s poetry was published in a local newspaper when he was 14. The first African author to win the prestigious latin Union literary prize, he has also been celebrated for creating proverbs, in his works. Couto is a surrealist writer who elaborately writes about the 1977 Mozambique Civil War. He prefers to write about female characters as he says that he finds them ‘complex’.
Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe)
Oldest among the nominees, 78 year old Maryse Condé is the first Francophone novelist from the Caribbean to write about the relationship between colonial United States and the English Caribbean. Her themes are primarily gender, class, race, and poverty, and politically turbulent times. She wrote her first novel when she was 11.
Fanny Howe (USA)
Inspired the poetry of TS Eliot, Fanny Howe, 74, is a renowned poet, skilled fiction writer and essayist. She was also directly involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Her works have been translated into multiple languages such as latin American, Russian, Haitian, African, Italian, British. Her setting is primarily set in Boston and her plots are semi-autobiographical in nature. She is a judge for the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize.
Ibrahim al-Koni (libya)
Ibrahim al-Koni didn’t know how to read or write until he was 12, but is now one of the most noteworthy names in Arabic literature. He was born in 1948 and has written over 60 novels, short stories, and poetry. He prominently employs the metaphor of a desert to underline human conditions. He has been called a magic realist and a sufi fabulist.
Marlene van Niekerk (S Africa)
Marlene van Niekerk, 60, is a novelist, professor, poet, dramatist and critic who teaches Afrikaans and Dutch literature and Creative Writing at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is known for her writing about gender, race, and socio-political upheaval in post-apartheid South Africa. Her notorious projections of a poor Afrikaner family in Johannesburg in Triomf made her a prominent voice in Apartheid literature.
lászló Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
Compared to Gogol and Melville, lászló Krasznahorkai, 61, wrote the modern classic Satantango, which is today considered a modern classic. He has also been a screenwriter for the film adaptations of his works made by friend and filmmaker Bela Tarr. He fled Hungary in 1948 to escape the dominating Communist regime post power World War II.
Alain Mabanckou (Congo)
Forty-nine-year-old Alain Mabanckou is among one of the most renowned French writers alive today. Ironically, his writings are known to undermine the French canon and language! He also happens to be the first writer from Francophone Africa to be published under the French la Blanche publication. He is a professor at the University of California, los Angeles. The winner will be announced at the Victoria and Albert Museum in london on May 19.