Announcement Man Booker Prize

Interesting development that this year Man Booker Prize has picked up The Kills by Richard House originally published in digital form.

And a small independent publisher also makes its mark for the 2nd.time.

Announcement form Man Booker

“The 2013 Man Booker Prize Longlist was announced on 23rd July. Having read a staggering 151 submitted works of fiction the five members of our judging panel, chaired by Robert Macfarlane, pronounced the following 13 novels as this year’s ‘Man Booker dozen’:

This year the announcement of the Man Booker dozen was picked up widely by the international press. Amongst coverage in the UK, The Daily Telegraph focussed on Richard House’s The Kills having being originally published in digital form whilst The Independent congratulated small independent Scottish publisher Sandstone Press for being long-listed for the prize for a second time (the first was in 2011 for Jane Rogers’ The Testament of Jessie Lamb). The London Evening Standard discussed how women ‘dominated’ the longlist by being in the majority of the authors whereas The Guardian picked up on ‘unfamiliar voices’ being in the majority, and the Irish press of course ran with the three Irish authors being longlisted.

Internationally, the Man Booker Prize was discussed at length in America with the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, LA Times and TIME Magazine all covering the announcement. Articles also appeared in the Hong Kong Standard, Reuters India, MSN New Zealand and Elle magazine online, to name just a few.

Following on from the announcement and the global attention it attracted, a number of publishers have decided to bring forward the publication dates of as-yet-unreleased longlisted books. On the list of 13, five novels are currently unreleased. Publishers Hamish Hamilton have said that Alison Mcleod’s Unexploded, scheduled for September, will now have an ‘immediate’ release, while Sandstone Press have brought The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris forward to the start of August. Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson was due on 15th August but Mantle have confirmed it will be in bookshops early while Granta will publish The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton on 1st August rather than its originally scheduled release date of 5th September. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri is planned for 26th September but Bloomsbury is considering an early publication date.

The Long List:

Five Star Billionaire Tash Aw (Fourth Estate)
We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)
The Luminaries Eleanor Catton (Granta)
Harvest Jim Crace (Picador)
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman Eve Harris (Sandstone Press)
The Kills Richard House (Picador)
The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)
Unexploded Alison MacLeod ( Hamish Hamilton)
TransAtlantic Colum McCann (Bloomsbury)
Almost English Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle)
A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)
The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan (Doubleday Ireland)
The Testament of Mary Colm Tóibín (Viking)