The Booker Prize Foundation, which awards the prestigious Man Booker Prize for quality fiction written in English, on Friday announced the launch of the Golden Man Booker Prize to mark its 50th anniversary.
“The Golden Man Booker will put all 51 winners – which are all still in print – back under the spotlight, to discover which of them has stood the test of time, remaining relevant to readers today,” the organisation said in a statement.
Five judges – writer and editor Robert McCrum, poet Lemn Sissay, novelist Kamila Shamsie, broadcaster and novelist Simon Mayo, and poet Hollie McNish – will choose the best novel from each decade, starting with McCrum, who will go through the novels published in the 1970s.
Their shortlisted novels will be revealed at the Hay Festival on May 26, and opened for the public to vote till June 25 at the Man Booker website. The overall winner will be announced at the Man Booker 50 Festival on July 8, the foundation said.
“The very best fiction endures and resonates with readers long after it is written,” Baroness Helena Kennedy, the Chairperson of the Booker Prize Foundation, said. “I am fascinated to see what our panel of excellent judges – including writers and poets, broadcasters and editors – and the readers of today make of the winners of the past, as they revisit the rich Man Booker library.”
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