The winner of the 2015 Man Booker International Prize will be announced on Tuesday, 19 May during an event at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Eight of the ten finalists – who were announced during a press conference held at the University of Cape Town earlier this year – will be attending the function, including African nominees Marlene van Niekerk (South Africa), Alain Mabanckou (Republic of Congo), Mia Couto (Mozambique) and Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya). César Aira (Argentina) and Amitav Ghosh (India) are the only finalists who will not be present for the announcement.
In anticipation of the big event, The Guardian recently interviewed all ten finalists, asking them pointed questions to get to know them better:
- How would you describe your work to someone unfamiliar with it?
- Which of your books would you recommend to a reader approaching your work for the first time?
- As a writer, do you feel that there is a distinction between a home and an international readership?
- Who are your literary heroes?
- Is it the duty of a novelist to engage with the political issues of the day?
- Tell us something new about yourself.
Read the article to find out more about the finalists for this year’s Man Booker International Prize:
Marlene van Niekerk:
How would you describe your work to someone unfamiliar with it?
Difficult question. I would say a high degree of specificity. Thick description. There is a vain ambition that propels my efforts: to write something that will at least surprise and at best confound me – and hopefully the reader. This involves a certain hellbent relationship with language. I try to “make it” lead me into the unknown by forcing useful “accidents”. Seduction, coercion, treason, egg white, Biblical rhythms, anything to mobilise “the other” of writing. To provoke the resistance of what refuses to be written.
Alain Mabanckou:
How would you describe your work to someone unfamiliar with it?
My novels often feature “grotesque” characters who hail from Congo’s poor, popular, working-class neighbourhoods.
Mia Couto:
How would you describe your work to someone unfamiliar with it?
I use dreams and words and feelings to produce stories. My writing is my passion and I don’t consider it as “work”.
Ibrahim al-Koni:
How would you describe your work to someone unfamiliar with it?
To answer this question I would need to write all my works again. If forced to reply, however, I would say that I will shock readers who seek entertainment in literature and not truth, because the literary search for truth is a wail that always arises from pain. For writers like me literature is a mission, and having a calling like this implies an acceptance of the cross and the blood that washes the cross; this is true for every prophetic mission in the world. Therefore I am unable to offer a formulaic definition, because if the devil is in the details, as we say, truth also dwells in the details.
Read our Man Booker International coverage:
- “A Blazing Voice”, “Absolutely Astonishing” – Man Booker International Judges on Marlene van Niekerk
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Posted by Books LIVE on Wednesday, 25 March 2015
The finalists for the Man Booker International Prize were announced in Cape Town on 24 March by judges Marina Warner…
Posted by Books LIVE on Tuesday, 24 March 2015
Press release
The winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2015 will be announced at 22.00 BST on Tuesday 19 May at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Eight of the ten finalists will be travelling to the UK for the announcement, and will be taking part in several events.
Hoda Barakat, Maryse Condé, Mia Couto, Fanny Howe, Ibrahim al-Koni, László Krasznahorkai, Alain Mabanckou and Marlene van Niekerk will all be present at the awards ceremony, where the winner will be announced by Dame Marina Warner.
Six of the finalists will also be taking part in a Guardian Live event at The British Library on Sunday 17 May, 2.30 – 4pm, for an afternoon of readings and interviews ahead of the announcement.
On Monday 18 May at Birkbeck University of London, there will be an event in association with English PEN with three of the finalists, focusing on literature in translation. Hay Festival will then host an interview on Sunday 24 May at 7pm between Chair of judges, Professor Marina Warner and the winner.
The Man Booker International Prize recognises one writer for his or her achievement in fiction. Worth £60,000 to the winner, the prize highlights one writer’s overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. The prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.
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Images courtesy of Man Booker International