Lauinger Library played host to the publication of the 18 finalists for the first ever Man Booker International prize last Friday afternoon, which will be awarded in June 2005 in London. The newly created honor will be awarded biannually by a three-judge panel to a living author whose work is available in English.
This year’s judges, British literary critic John Carey, Argentinean writer Alberto Manguel and Iranian author Azar Nafisi, who is best-known for “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” convened in the Pierce Reading Room to discuss their selection process for the shortlist.
While the original Man Booker Prize is awarded for a single work of fiction written by a citizen of the Commonwealth of England or the Republic of Ireland, its new international offshoot will be given for the entire body of work of an author of any country of origin.
The list of finalists is broad in scope, containing 10 authors in translation and representing 13 different countries. According to committee chair Carey, this multiculturalism is particularly important to the mission of the new award.
“The prime aim here is to build bridges between cultures, which has never been more urgent than now,” he said.
“What literature shows is the interconnectedness of cultures because telling stories is a biological human need and a mark of our common humanity,” he continued. “Not only do we need stories and writers, but we need readers to be alerted to them, which is what we hope the prize will accomplish.”
This year’s shortlist contains names representing a wide spectrum of countries and literary styles, including Naguib Fahouz, Milan Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and John Updike.
According to the judges, the quality of the translation they read influenced their decision more than they would have liked, as style, cadence and wordplay can be difficult to translate. All three emphasized the difficulty of narrowing down such a rich field.
“All these writers are such different breeds and they are all unique to read,” said Azar. “Authors for me are like different lovers, and I cannot choose just one. I am promiscuous about authors I love, and we want the public to be equally promiscuous about reading them.”
Georgetown was selected as the host site for the press conference because of its long-standing association with the Man Booker Prize through an advanced seminar on the significance of the prize. “Booker Prize Novels” is taught every other year by Fr. Alvaro Ribeiro, S.J. The three judges visited English classrooms Friday afternoon and gave a talk Friday evening in the ICC Auditorium on the importance of “Book as Prize.”
ces newsletter cost keep decline thus climate