Well known Kannada writer and Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy is among the 10 finalists picked by judges for the fifth Man Booker International Prize.
It was announced at the Jaipur Literature Festival here on Thursday. The winner of the biennial Prize, which carries a cash award of 60,000 pounds, would be announced in May in London.
Ananthamurthy, 80, is the only Indian to have made it to the list of finalists.
Considered to be one of the most important voices of “new movement” in Kannada literary world, Ananthamurthy has written five novels, eight short story collections and three poetry collections that have been translated into other languages in India as well as Europe.
The author studied English literature at the University of Mysore and earned his doctorate from University of Birmingham.
Best known for his 1966 novel “Samskara”, the author was also shortlisted for DSC Prize for South Asian literature in 2012 for his novel Bharatipura (published in English in 2010).
The other authors picked by the jury are Aharon Appelfeld (Israel), Lydia Davis and Marilynne Robinson (USA), Intizar Hussain (Pakistan), Yan Lianke (China), Marie NDiaye (France), Josip Novakovich (Canada), Valdimir Sorokin (Russia) and Peter Stamm (Switzerland).
The judging panel of the Man Booker International Prize 2013 consists of scholar and literary critic Sir Christopher Ricks (Chair), author and essayist Elif Batuman, writer broadcaster Aminatta Forna, novelist Yiyun Li and author and academics Tim Parks.
The Man Booker International Prize is a biennial international literary award given to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or available in English translation. The International Prize was introduced in June 2004.
The award is given in recognition of the writer’s body of work, rather than any one title.
The judges for the year compile their own lists of authors and submissions are not invited. Unlike the Man Booker Prize which is only open to writers from the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe, the International Prize is open to all nationalities. An author can only win once.
The Man Booker International Prize also allows for a separate award for translation. The winning author can choose a translator of their work into English to receive a prize sum of £15,000. The inaugural winner was Albanian writer Ismail Kadare.
