21st Century Literature discussion

Time to start noticing prize line-ups for the new year?

Anyway: The judges for the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction were announced Thursday, December 11, 2014.

The five 2015 judges are: Michael Wood (Chair), Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Princeton; Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, journalist and Deputy Chair of the Council of the Caine Prize; John Burnside, prize-winning poet; Sam Leith, author and Literary Editor at The Spectator and Frances Osborne, author and biographer. None of these have previously been a member of a Man Booker Prize judging panel, and they bring together a wide knowledge of international literature.

"2015 is the 47th year of the prize, which was launched in 1969.The 2015 judging panel will be looking for the best novel of the year, selected from entries published in the UK between 1 October 2014 and 30 September 2015."
....
"The ‘Man Booker Dozen’ of 12 or 13 books will be announced in August 2015 and the shortlist of six books in early September 2015. The winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on 13 October 2015, at an awards ceremony at London’s Guildhall, broadcast live by the BBC."

For more: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news...

(Let me know if I have not properly tied these judges to their Goodreads entries. Made one correction 12/30.)

Thanks Lily! You're always on top of all this great information. :)

Linda wrote: "Thanks Lily! You're always on top of all this great information. :)"

You are most welcome, Linda. I try, but they do slip by, and I appreciate others, like another Linda, who often catch these, too. (In fact, there is one in the back of my mind that I need to check on one of these days, but not tonight. Did we get an entry for the National Book Critics Award in 2014?)

Lily wrote: "(In fact, there is one in the back of my mind that I need to check on one of these days, but not tonight. Did we get an entry for the National Critics Award in 2014?)"

I took the liberty to look this up for you. From this link: http://bookcritics.org/awards/award_s...

Finalists will be announced in January 2015.

Linda wrote: "Lily wrote: "...Did we get an entry for the National Book Critics Award in 2014?)"

I took the liberty to look this up... From this link: http://bookcritics.org/awards/award_s...

Finalists will be announced in January 2015. ..."

Ah, thx, Linda. This is one of those awards with its own numbering scheme -- 2013 award announced in 2014, 2014 in 2015,...

I wouldn't even know all the awards offered, let alone the finalists and winners without these posts. So, thanks again to you Lily, and to everyone else who posts this information.

May not have time to post these properly for a week or so (with Goodreads links -- well its done), but have already missed announcement so FYI:

April 3, 2015 9:58 pm
"Man Booker International Prize finalists," Hedley Twidle
"The announcement at the University of Cape Town comes amid the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ protests"
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/14aedf9a-d7...

The ten authors on the list are:

César Aira (Argentina)
Hoda Barakat (Lebanon)
Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe)
Mia Couto (Mozambique)
Amitav Ghosh (India)
Fanny Howe (United States of America)
Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya)
László Krasznahorkai (Hungary)
Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo)
Marlene Van Niekerk (South Africa)

This is the prize that honors an author's body of work rather than a particular book. See here for the press release:

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/pres...

"The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2015 consists of writer and academic, 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."

I include the judging panel consistent with an attempt to help us understand the orientation of the judging criteria for the various prizes. If the author link ever fails to be the correct name, please call it to our attention.

The article you linked to is excellent.

And an excellent time to remind people that Krasznahorkai's Seiobo There Below is the May Moderator pick.