The Man Booker International Prize, born in 2005, used to be a biennial prize for works from anywhere in the world published in English. The most recent winner of the award was Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai beating out contestants that included Mia Couto from Mozambique, Alain Mabanckou from the Republic of the Congo, Libyan Ibrahim al-Koni and South African Marlene van Niekerk.
Other Africans have been part of this prize with Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe winning it in 2007.
From 2016 the prize will now come together with the original Man Booker in a format change. From now on, any book written in English anywhere in the world and published in Great Britain will be called the Man Booker.
The new Man Booker International Prize will now be a book written in a foreign language and translated into English. This is possibly a big boon for work that has been translated into English from its original.
The Man Booker International will also become annual with the typical prize trajectory; longlist announcement in March, the shortlist in April, and the winner announced in May. The new-look prize will be for a single book rather than a body of work and submissions will be from publishers rather than emanating from the judges and the e-Council. The new panel will also have five judges and be worth £50,000 to the winner (to be shared with the translator).
As you can see the prize money is £50,000 yet the prize money last year was £37,500. The change is because the Man Booker International has joined forces with the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize which used to be £10,000. That’s handy change whatever way you look at it.
Start translating folks.
Leave a Reply