The longlist for the 2013 Man Booker Prize will be announced on 23 July -- the first we'll have any idea what novels have been entered for this prize.
As longtime readers know, my prime complaint against this prize (and many other literary prizes) is that they don't reveal what books are actually in the running for it -- i.e. the pool of books that have been entered, from which the long/shortlist and winner will be selected. In the case of the Man Booker, with such tight rules about eligibility (each UK publisher is only allowed to submit two titles, with only a few other possibilities for titles to slip into the mix), this is especially problematic -- and baffling: there's no good reason to keep the list secret, except so that publishers can lie to their authors and claim they did submit specific titles when, in fact, they didn't.
In a cruel tease the Man Booker folk have now released two photographs displaying all the entered titles -- but, unfortunately, the pictures are not very revealing ..... I hope that UK book-detectives can identify some of the volumes .....
As longtime readers know, my prime complaint against this prize (and many other literary prizes) is that they don't reveal what books are actually in the running for it -- i.e. the pool of books that have been entered, from which the long/shortlist and winner will be selected. In the case of the Man Booker, with such tight rules about eligibility (each UK publisher is only allowed to submit two titles, with only a few other possibilities for titles to slip into the mix), this is especially problematic -- and baffling: there's no good reason to keep the list secret, except so that publishers can lie to their authors and claim they did submit specific titles when, in fact, they didn't.
In a cruel tease the Man Booker folk have now released two photographs displaying all the entered titles -- but, unfortunately, the pictures are not very revealing ..... I hope that UK book-detectives can identify some of the volumes .....