Booker Prizes are major literary awards in the United Kingdom. Two prizes are awarded each year, the Booker Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize for Fiction in Translation. The prizes are also known, in briefer form, as the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize. Both prizes honor works of fiction. The Booker Prize Foundation organizes and administers the prizes.
The Booker Prizes are among the richest and most prestigious literary prizes in the United Kingdom. Most winning books gain a sharp increase in sales. Prizewinning authors attract popular attention through appearances on television and radio, at lectures or other literary occasions, and at book-signing sessions.
The Booker Prize for Fiction
is given annually to a novel originally written in English and published by a registered publisher in the United Kingdom or Ireland between October 1 and the following September 30. Under the present rules, a novel is eligible regardless of the nationality of its author. Before Oct. 1, 2013, an author was required to be a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland.
A publisher may submit from one to four novels for consideration, depending on how many of its publications were selected as semifinalists in the previous 5 years. In addition, a publisher may submit a list of up to 5 additional works, known as “call-in” nominations.
A panel of judges reads the submitted books and announces a list of 12 or 13 semifinalists, called the longlist, in July. From the longlist, they choose up to 6 books and announce them in September as the shortlist. Each autumn, the judges select the winner from the shortlist. The judges rank among the United Kingdom’s major authors, literary critics, journalists, and academics.
The International Booker Prize for Fiction in Translation
is awarded annually to a single book of fiction translated into English and published by a registered publisher in the United Kingdom or Ireland between May 1 and the following April 30. The book may be a novel or a collection of short stories. The author and translator share the prize. As with the Booker Prize for Fiction, the judges first compile a longlist and then a shortlist of candidates. Each spring, the judges select a winner from the shortlist.
Special Booker prizes
also have been awarded. For example, a special one-time Lost Man Booker Prize was awarded to Troubles by J. G. Farrell in 2010. The prize honored books published in 1970 but not considered for the prize when rules governing publication date were changed.
Another special one-time award, the Golden Man Booker Prize, was awarded in 2018 to The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. The prize celebrated the 50th anniversary of the award. A panel of judges created a shortlist of 5 titles from the 51 previous winners, and the public was invited to vote from that list for the winner of the Golden Man Booker Prize.
History.
The Booker McConnell Prize was established in 1968 by Booker McConnell, Ltd., a multinational food production company. It was awarded for the first time in 1969. The prize soon became generally known as the Booker Prize. From 2002 to 2019, the prize was sponsored by the Man Group, an international investment organization. During that time, its name was the Man Booker Prize. The international prize was established in 2005 under the name Man Booker International Prize. Originally, it was a lifetime achievement award presented every two years for fiction published in English or generally available in English translation. The international prize in its present form was first awarded in 2016.
The sponsorship of the Booker Prizes changed again on June 1, 2019. Crankstart, a charitable organization, assumed the sponsorship for a period of at least 5 years. The present names for the prizes were adopted as of that date.
The Booker Prize for Fiction has traditionally been awarded to a single novel. However, in 1974 and 1992, two novels jointly received the award. In 1993, a rule change established that only one novel can win the prize. Nevertheless, in 2019, two novels again jointly received the award.
