The Man Booker International Prize was, from 2005 to 2015, a biennial prize honoring: "a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language".
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was a prize that ran from 1990 to 1995 and was then revived and ran from 2001 to 2015, honoring: "the best work of fiction by a living author, which was translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom in the previous year"
And now they are one, as the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has been swallowed whole and renamed the Man Booker International Prize -- with a nice heap more of prize-money tossed in for good measure -- while the author-prize that the Man Booker International used to be has been tossed by the wayside (apparently, you see, it was beyond the comprehension of British readers that a prize might be: "awarded for a body of work rather than an individual title" (so Man Booker Foundation chair Jonathan Taylor, in this report in The Bookseller)).
To sum up what's changed:
Lost in the shuffle is the author-prize, which is a bit disappointing. But it really does seem to be an odd cultural thing: US/UK literary prizes tend much more to be book- rather than author-prizes (while, for example, in Germany the opposite is true -- most of the big prizes are author prizes, with the German Book Prize, for example, a relative newcomer to the prize-scene).
The additional money -- £50,000 for the winning title, to be shared equally between author and translator, plus a bit more just for getting shortlisted -- is certainly welcome, and maybe that will help atract more attention for the prize (personally I thought the IFFP did pretty well, publicity wise, but admittedly the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is in a different league; whether this new-version Man Booker International Prize will be in the same league ... I have my doubts).
It's good to see publishers can submit as many titles as they want (unlike the severely restricted Man Booker Prize for Fiction) -- presumably because the pool of eligible titles is so (relatively) small in the first place. Among the restrictions in place however is that both author and translator must be alive -- which really cuts into the eligibility-pool (recall that eleven (I think ...) of the twenty-five authors with works longlisted for this year's Best Translated Book Award were deceased ...).
The Rules & Entry Form (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) does not specify whether or not the list of submitted titles will be made public (the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, for example, outrageously promises to keep the list secret); given that there are no limitations on how many titles publishers can submit (unlike with the Fiction prize, where publishers thus have a great incentive to lie to their authors and say they submitted titles they did not actually submit) one hopes and prays that they will publicize the list -- since that would also be a very useful resource for readers.
See also the official statements from the two prizes: And UK publishers: submit ! submit ! Here (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) ! Submit !
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize was a prize that ran from 1990 to 1995 and was then revived and ran from 2001 to 2015, honoring: "the best work of fiction by a living author, which was translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom in the previous year"
And now they are one, as the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has been swallowed whole and renamed the Man Booker International Prize -- with a nice heap more of prize-money tossed in for good measure -- while the author-prize that the Man Booker International used to be has been tossed by the wayside (apparently, you see, it was beyond the comprehension of British readers that a prize might be: "awarded for a body of work rather than an individual title" (so Man Booker Foundation chair Jonathan Taylor, in this report in The Bookseller)).
To sum up what's changed:
- The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize no longer exists
- The Man Booker International Prize no longer is a prize for an author's life-work (like the Nobel)
- The Man Booker International Prize is no longer a biennial prize, but rather will be awarded annually
- The Man Booker International Prize is now, in fact, identical to what the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize used to be -- except that they'll pay out more money
Lost in the shuffle is the author-prize, which is a bit disappointing. But it really does seem to be an odd cultural thing: US/UK literary prizes tend much more to be book- rather than author-prizes (while, for example, in Germany the opposite is true -- most of the big prizes are author prizes, with the German Book Prize, for example, a relative newcomer to the prize-scene).
The additional money -- £50,000 for the winning title, to be shared equally between author and translator, plus a bit more just for getting shortlisted -- is certainly welcome, and maybe that will help atract more attention for the prize (personally I thought the IFFP did pretty well, publicity wise, but admittedly the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is in a different league; whether this new-version Man Booker International Prize will be in the same league ... I have my doubts).
It's good to see publishers can submit as many titles as they want (unlike the severely restricted Man Booker Prize for Fiction) -- presumably because the pool of eligible titles is so (relatively) small in the first place. Among the restrictions in place however is that both author and translator must be alive -- which really cuts into the eligibility-pool (recall that eleven (I think ...) of the twenty-five authors with works longlisted for this year's Best Translated Book Award were deceased ...).
The Rules & Entry Form (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) does not specify whether or not the list of submitted titles will be made public (the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, for example, outrageously promises to keep the list secret); given that there are no limitations on how many titles publishers can submit (unlike with the Fiction prize, where publishers thus have a great incentive to lie to their authors and say they submitted titles they did not actually submit) one hopes and prays that they will publicize the list -- since that would also be a very useful resource for readers.
See also the official statements from the two prizes: And UK publishers: submit ! submit ! Here (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) ! Submit !