Man Booker Prize Now Open To American Authors Published in UK

By Jason Boog 

The prestigious Man Booker Prize is now open to any novel “originally written in English and published in the UK,” a rule change that will allow American writers to be eligible for the award.

“It is rather as if the Chinese were excluded from the Olympic Games,” Booker Prize Foundation chair Jonathan Taylor wrote in his official announcement about the change. The foundation has added a few new requirements as well. Here’s more from the release:

All novels entered for the prize must be published in the UK and entered by their UK publisher; timings and processes will be unchanged; longlists and shortlists will continue; and above all the requirement that all judges consider all entries will remain … Trustees have agreed a modified basis for submissions from publishers which recognises literary achievement; this will be by reference to longlisting within the previous five years. At the same time the prize will continue to be open to all publishers, existing and emerging, all of whom will be entitled to enter at least one novel as well as proposing the other novels for the judges to consider. Arrangements for the call-in process and priority for previously shortlisted writers would be unchanged.