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Moderator Alvaro Ribeiro, S.J. and panelists
and Man Booker International Judges John Carey, Alberto
Manguel
and Azar Nafisi.
The prestigious Man Booker Prize, awarded annually since 1969,
celebrates a work of fiction published within the previous twelve
months by an author from the British Commonwealth or Republic
of Ireland. This year the new Man Booker International Prize,
a complement to the Man Booker Prize, was created to honor fiction
authors worldwide. A press conference announcing the shortlisted
authors for the new prize was held at Georgetown University's
Lauinger Library on February 18, 2005. Following the press conference,
the Library Associates, in collaboration with the Georgetown
University Humanities Initiative, hosted The Book As Prize,
a panel discussion with the Man Booker International judges.
The judges for the 2005 Man booker International Prize are John
Carey, Alberto Manguel, and Azar Nafisi. Professor Carey is a
literary critic, broadcaster and author. He was Merton Professor
of English Literature at the University of Oxford from 1976-2001
and chaired the Booker Prize in 1982 and 2003. His latest book
is Pure Pleasure: A Guide to the Twentieth Century's Most
Enjoyable Books. Mr. Manguel is a writer, novelist, translator
and editor, whose books include A History of Reading,
Into the Looking-Glass Wood and The Dictionary of
Imaginary Places and the novels, News
from a Foreign Country Came and Stevenson Under the
Palm Trees.
Dr. Nafisi is a visiting fellow, professional lecturer, and the
director of The Dialogue Project: The Culture of Democracy in
Muslim Societies at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins
University's School of Advanced International Studies. Her latest
book, Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, was published
in 2003.
The judges chose eighteen authors for their short list of contenders
for the prize. The prize is to be awarded to an author for a
body of work, not an individual novel, and the judges spoke in
their news conference and in the panel discussion of the value
of a short list as opposed to the simple announcement of one
winner. A short list of authors is a valuable "invitation to
disagreement" and an opportunity for readers to engage in their
own decision-making as they explore the worlds of writers they
might not otherwise have encountered. To choose one author as
winner, the judges said, is a sort of "noble lie," and a short
list encourages others to make their own choices.
The winner of the Man Booker International Prize will be announced
at a news conference in London in early June, and the author
will be invited to Edinburgh on June 27th to accept the award
at the Royal Museum. More information on the Man Booker International
Prize is available
online. Our thanks to Tom, C'64 and Meg Healey and the Man
Group for their help in sponsoring this event.
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