Historian leads 2016 Man Booker judges

Biographer and historian Amanda Foreman is to chair the 2016 Man Booker Prize jury, and will be backed by a critic, a novelist, a poet and an actor. Next year is the 48th year of the prize, which was launched in 1969. Foreman’s fellow judges are: Jon Day, critic and lecturer in English at King’s […]

Biographer and historian Amanda Foreman is to chair the 2016 Man Booker Prize jury, and will be backed by a critic, a novelist, a poet and an actor.
Next year is the 48th year of the prize, which was launched in 1969. Foreman’s fellow judges are: Jon Day, critic and lecturer in English at King’s College London, specialising in modernist fiction; Abdulrazak Gurnah, Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist and professor of English and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Kent; David Harsent, poet and professor of Creative Writing at the University of Roehampton, winner of 2014 TS Eliot prize; Olivia Williams, actor, currently starring in a National Theatre’s production of Harley Granville-Barker’s “Waste”.
Foreman, who judged the prize in 2012, under the chairmanship of Sir Peter Stothard, said: “I am honoured to be chairing such a distinguished panel of Man Booker judges. We have an incredibly intense and stimulating time ahead of us. For nearly 50 years the prize has played a special role in its contribution to modern culture. It is also unique in the demands it places on the judges. But rising to the challenge is part of what makes it a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If anybody needs to speak to me, I’ll be in my study, reading.”
The 2016 judging panel will be looking for the best novel of the year, selected from entries published in the UK between 1st October 2015 and 30th September 2016. The ‘Man Booker Dozen’ of 12 or 13 books will be announced in late July 2016 and the shortlist of six books in early September 2016. The winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on 11th October 2016 at an awards ceremony at London’s Guildhall, broadcast live by the BBC.
The judges will read submissions both in hard copy and using e-readers. The Man Booker Prize is sponsored by Man Group.
Culled from: www.thebookseller.com