Date: 18 May 2011 (announcement of winner)
Worth £60,000 to the winner, 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.
The Finalists' List was announced by the chair of judges, Rick Gekoski at a press conference held at the University of Sydney, on Wednesday 30 March 2011 at 10:00 (EST).
The finalists' list includes four Asian writers:
1. Wang Anyi
Wang Anyi was born in Nanjing in 1954 but grew up in Shanghai. She is from the generation of writers whose formal education was disrupted by the Cultural Revolution. She worked for the magazine Childhood and in 1980 became a member of the Chinese Association of Writers. She is among the most widely read and anthologized authors of the post-Mao era. Among Wang’s acclaimed Shanghai novels is the nostalgic Changhen Ge (The Song of Everlasting Sorrow)(1996). Voted the most influential work of the 1990s in China, it won the fifth Mao Dun Literature Award in 2000, one China’s most prestigious literary prizes. As well as fiction Wang has published essays, journalism, travel writings, literary criticism, and memoirs. In 2001 Wang was elected chairperson of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. Wang Anyi is a professor of Chinese literature at Fudan University.
2. Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1949. He writes in French, and his works have been translated into twenty languages. After studying sociology and economics, Maalouf continued a long family tradition and became a journalist. He worked for the leading daily newspaper, An-Nahar, and travelled to India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Yemen and Algeria, often covering wars and other conflicts. Maalouf received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios and won the Prince of Asturias Award for literature in 2010.
3. David Malouf
David Malouf was born in Queensland, Australia, in March 1934 to a Lebanese-Christian father and English-Jewish mother. In 1968, he lectured at the University of Sydney before becoming a full-time writer in 1978. In 2008, Malouf won the Australian Publishers Association’s Lloyd O’Neil Award for outstanding service to the Australian book industry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008.
4. Su Tong
Su Tong was born in 1963 in Suzhou and studied at Beijing University. His prolific and provocative oeuvre - six novels including Rice (2004) and My Life as Emperor (2006), a dozen novellas and more than 120 short stories - have earned him a place at the centre of China’s literary scene. His best-known work outside China is the novella Wives and Concubines on which the screenplay for the film Raise the Red Lantern was based. In 2009, he was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize for his seventh novel, The Boat to Redemption.
The Man Booker International Prize winner will be announced at the Sydney Writers' Festival on 18 May and the winner will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in London on 28 June 2011.
More information here.
Worth £60,000 to the winner, 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.
The Finalists' List was announced by the chair of judges, Rick Gekoski at a press conference held at the University of Sydney, on Wednesday 30 March 2011 at 10:00 (EST).
The finalists' list includes four Asian writers:
1. Wang Anyi
Wang Anyi was born in Nanjing in 1954 but grew up in Shanghai. She is from the generation of writers whose formal education was disrupted by the Cultural Revolution. She worked for the magazine Childhood and in 1980 became a member of the Chinese Association of Writers. She is among the most widely read and anthologized authors of the post-Mao era. Among Wang’s acclaimed Shanghai novels is the nostalgic Changhen Ge (The Song of Everlasting Sorrow)(1996). Voted the most influential work of the 1990s in China, it won the fifth Mao Dun Literature Award in 2000, one China’s most prestigious literary prizes. As well as fiction Wang has published essays, journalism, travel writings, literary criticism, and memoirs. In 2001 Wang was elected chairperson of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. Wang Anyi is a professor of Chinese literature at Fudan University.
2. Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1949. He writes in French, and his works have been translated into twenty languages. After studying sociology and economics, Maalouf continued a long family tradition and became a journalist. He worked for the leading daily newspaper, An-Nahar, and travelled to India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Yemen and Algeria, often covering wars and other conflicts. Maalouf received the Prix Goncourt in 1993 for his novel The Rock of Tanios and won the Prince of Asturias Award for literature in 2010.
3. David Malouf
David Malouf was born in Queensland, Australia, in March 1934 to a Lebanese-Christian father and English-Jewish mother. In 1968, he lectured at the University of Sydney before becoming a full-time writer in 1978. In 2008, Malouf won the Australian Publishers Association’s Lloyd O’Neil Award for outstanding service to the Australian book industry. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008.
4. Su Tong
Su Tong was born in 1963 in Suzhou and studied at Beijing University. His prolific and provocative oeuvre - six novels including Rice (2004) and My Life as Emperor (2006), a dozen novellas and more than 120 short stories - have earned him a place at the centre of China’s literary scene. His best-known work outside China is the novella Wives and Concubines on which the screenplay for the film Raise the Red Lantern was based. In 2009, he was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize for his seventh novel, The Boat to Redemption.
The Man Booker International Prize winner will be announced at the Sydney Writers' Festival on 18 May and the winner will be celebrated at an awards ceremony in London on 28 June 2011.
More information here.
