They've announced the judging panel for the 2013 Man Booker International Prize -- "awarded for an achievement in fiction on the world stage. It is presented every two years to a living author for a body of work published either originally in English or widely available in translation in the English language".
Christopher Ricks is chairing, and the judges are Elif Batuman, Aminatta Forna, Yiyun Li, and Tim Parks -- who boast an impressively multi-national background, for what that's worth (and I imagine it's worth something, given the kind of prize this is (or is meant to be)). Forna alone: "was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and spent periods of her childhood in Zambia, Iran and Thailand" -- though Ricks looks like the odd (but very representative ...) British man out (with them going so far as to note that, well, at least he: "has reviewed fiction from France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Canada and South Africa").
The wide-ranging backgrounds give some reason for hope -- at least presumably they'll be considering authors from many countries, cultures, and languages. (But if Parks just tosses in an Italian name or two, Forna feels obliged to push an African, Batuman goes Turkish and/or Russian, and Li suggests a Chinese author, I'll be very disappointed.)
One more observation: there is a disturbing trend to be noted in this biennial prize since it began in 2005 -- the number of finalists considered. Consider how many there were -- and how few there are slated for the 2013 prize (they haven't announced the names yet, of course, but that's the number they're aiming for):
Christopher Ricks is chairing, and the judges are Elif Batuman, Aminatta Forna, Yiyun Li, and Tim Parks -- who boast an impressively multi-national background, for what that's worth (and I imagine it's worth something, given the kind of prize this is (or is meant to be)). Forna alone: "was born in Scotland, raised in Sierra Leone and spent periods of her childhood in Zambia, Iran and Thailand" -- though Ricks looks like the odd (but very representative ...) British man out (with them going so far as to note that, well, at least he: "has reviewed fiction from France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Canada and South Africa").
The wide-ranging backgrounds give some reason for hope -- at least presumably they'll be considering authors from many countries, cultures, and languages. (But if Parks just tosses in an Italian name or two, Forna feels obliged to push an African, Batuman goes Turkish and/or Russian, and Li suggests a Chinese author, I'll be very disappointed.)
One more observation: there is a disturbing trend to be noted in this biennial prize since it began in 2005 -- the number of finalists considered. Consider how many there were -- and how few there are slated for the 2013 prize (they haven't announced the names yet, of course, but that's the number they're aiming for):
- 2005: 17 finalists
- 2007: 14
- 2009: 13
- 2011: 12
- 2013: 8