Man Booker Prize 2019: Four Of The Six Finalists Are Women

With the on-going feats of women athletes gaining remarkable victory, another genre of excellence has just been added to it. Man Bookers Prize, world’s most prestigious award in literature, has released the list of the six finalists for the award, four of which are women authors.

Among the 151 submissions for Man Booker Prize 2019, the judges have shortlisted six finalists this Tuesday. The name of the winner — and recipient of about $60,000 — will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 14. However, the proud moment for all the women authors is that four among the six finalist books has been written by women. The six finalists are Quichotte by Salman Rushdie; Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann; An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma; 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak; Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.

Key Takeaways:

• Man Booker prize 2019 has released the lists of its six finalists out of 151 submissions.
• The four of the six finalists are women authors.
• The winner of Man Booker Prize 2019 will be announced on October 14 at a ceremony in London.

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The Testaments by Margret Atwood

Born in Canada and the author of popular dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margret Atwood is known for her prose fiction and feminist perspective. Atwood has already won the Man Booker Prize in the year 2000 and is in the run to grab another. The Testaments, novel for which Atwood has been shortlisted, is the “highly anticipated follow-up” to the bestseller and the 1986 Booker-shortlisted The Handmaid’s Tale.

Peter Florence, chairman of the 2019 judging panel, said, “There is a strange pleasure in knowing the secret of the publishing juggernaut that is The Testaments, and an exquisite agony in being unable to share it yet,.” “So this: it's a savage and beautiful novel that speaks to us today with conviction and power.” he added.

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman

Lucy Ellman is an Anglo-American novelist living in Scotland. Her first novel Sweet Desserts won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1988. She is the daughter of American biographer and literary critic Richard Ellmann and the feminist literary critic Mary Ellmann. Ducks, Newburyport, is a thousand-page novel and the longest in the prize’s 50-years history.

Judge Joanna MacGregor said, “Lucy Ellmann has written a genre-defying novel, a torrent on modern life, as well as a hymn to loss and grief. Her creativity and sheer obduracy make demands on the reader. But Ellmann's daring is exhilarating — as are the wit, humanity and survival of her unforgettable narrator.”

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, academic, public speaker and women's rights activist. She has taught in many Universities and is currently teaching at St Anne's College of Oxford University. She has published 17 books, 11 of which are novels, including The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of Love. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World is the first entry in the prize lists.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo is a London-born writer of Nigerian ancestry. Her writings include short fiction, drama, poetry, essays, literary criticism, and projects for stage and radio. Her books The Emperor's Babe and Hello Mum, have been adapted into BBC Radio 4 dramas. She is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and is a vice-chair of the Royal Society of Literature. Girl, Woman, Other is her latest novel that has been shortlisted for the Booker prize 2019 and Gordon Burn Prize 2019.

Image credit: The Johannesburg Review of Books

Rudrani Kumari is an intern with SheThePeople.Tv

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