The new award will award its first prize in March 2014
The new Literature Prize aims to create more winners like Hilary Mantel Photo: Moviestore Collection / Rex Feat
The Literature Prize, set up as a rival to the Man Booker, has secured a sponsor.
The sponsor’s identity has not yet been announced, although the £40,000 prize will adopt the sponsor’s name when it is revealed in February 2013.
The first prize will consider books published between January and December 2013 and will be awarded in March 2014. It aims "to put great literature at the centre of people's lives".
The new award, set up by agent Andrew Kidd, will differ to the Booker, as there will be no restriction on a writer's country of origin. As the organisers say, “the sole criterion will be excellence”.
Kidd commented: "As with all book prizes, our main aim is to get more good books into the hands of readers, so we are delighted to have the opportunity to make that happen. The prize’s international scope, its openness to all forms of fiction, will I hope make for an exciting and surprising selection of books, and frankly I’m now just impatient to get started.”
The chair of the 2011 Booker judging panel, Dame Stella Rimington, declared of the 2011 shortlist that she wanted people “to buy these books and read them, not buy them and admire them”. Kidd rejected this emphasis on "readability", intending the new award to "establish a clear and uncompromising standard of excellence."
"There's nothing wrong with readability, but not all writing sets out to do that. Some writers aspire to do something finer,” Kidd said.
full article at The Telegraph
"There's nothing wrong with readability, but not all writing sets out to do that. Some writers aspire to do something finer,” Kidd said.
full article at The Telegraph