Monday, August 3, 2009

Man Booker Longlist

Man Booker Prize released the longlist which includes Summertime by J.M. Coetzee, who is one of only two novelists to have won the Booker Prize twice with Life & Times of Michael K in 1983 and Disgrace in 1999.

William Trevor, previously shortlisted four times for the annual prize, is longlisted for his new novel Love and Summer.

Read more here.

However, I wonder when an African publishing house would make that list; though we say value should not be judged by awards but I really can't help but wonder...as our books that have even won international acclaim were first published abroad. Is it possible to find our way to this list or am I just dreaming?

2 comments:

  1. The solution to this is coming up with prizes with names like Soyinka Award, PEN/Okgibo, Marechera Prize, and Africa has enough resources to channel into author awards.

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  2. Nowadays I read only African authors and from what i have read I know we are good. I have read items from publishing houses just as Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana) and Jacana (South Africa). To me these are all part of the mental emancipation we have to fight for. I have started this process by reading only books by us and for us, so that i would know us, so that i would know myself.

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