The group that sponsors the Man Booker Prize for literature has created an Asian version of the prestigious award for English-language writing.
The Man Asian Literary Prize, valued at $10,000 US, is being co-sponsored by Man Group PLC and the Hong Kong International Literary Festival Inc., a literary festival that has run in Hong Kong since 2000.
Former governor general Adrienne Clarkson will be on the international jury to choose the first award winner, to be named in autumn 2007.
Adrienne Clarkson, former governor general and now a member of the jury for Canada's Giller Prize, will serve on the first jury for the Man Asian Literary Prize.
Officials of investment company Man Group PLC, which sponsors the British Booker award, announced the new prize in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
"We hope the Man Asian Literary Prize can provide a global stage for new Asian voices and highlight Asia's developing role in world literature," said Matt Dillon, Man's Asia Pacific regional managing director, in statement.
Organizers said they hope "this prize will foster that growth [and] facilitate the translation of Asian literature into English."
Either translations of already published novels or new works in English may be submitted.
The judges include:
- Clarkson, who is a judge for this year's Giller Prize.
- André Aciman, chair of comparative literature at the City University of New York and a judge for the U.S. National Book Award.
- Nicholas Jose, who has written both fiction and non-fiction about China and is chair of creative writing at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
The prize is open to writers from 24 countries stretching from Japan to Indonesia to Afghanistan. It is the first major literary prize for Asian writing.
The original Booker Prize dates to 1969 and over the years it's developed into one of the most celebrated literary awards in the world.
Recently, the Man Booker has started branching out, establishing the International Booker which is awarded every two years for career achievement.
The first winner in 2005 was Albanian-born poet and novelist Ismail Kadare. The International Booker will be awarded again next summer.
Last week, Indian writer Kiran Desai won the Man Booker Prize for her book The Inheritance of Loss.
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