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Memorandum

The New York Times

In First, Americans Are Nominated for Booker Prize

By KATRIN BENHOLD and ALEXANDRA ALTER JULY 23, 2014

LONDON — Karen Joy Fowler and Joshua Ferris are among five Americans who have made it onto the longlist of the Man Booker Prize, which for the first time is open to writers from beyond Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth.

The longlist, which also has six books written by Britons, was announced on Wednesday by the administrators of the prize. The other Americans nominated are Siri Hustvedt, Richard Powers and Joseph O’Neill, an Irish-born writer now living in New York.

The eclectic list of 13 novels ranges from experimental, literary high-wire acts to more commercial fare, like works by the best-selling authors David Nicholls and Ms. Fowler.

The decision to include all authors, “whether from Chicago, Sheffield or Shanghai” rankled some purists when it was announced last September; until last year, the 50,000 pound, or roughly $85,000, prize was restricted to authors from Britain, the other countries in the Commonwealth, and Ireland and Zimbabwe for books originally written in English and published in Britain.

Immediately, there were grumbles that the American presence came at the expense of writers from Commonwealth countries, as well as writers from smaller, more experimental literary presses. The BBC’s article about the nominees was headlined “Commonwealth Authors Edged Out.“ Some British critics expressed bafflement about the American authors who were chosen. And several commenters noted the absence of heavy hitters with recent or forthcoming books, like Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Donna Tartt, whose novel “The Goldfinch” won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

A. C. Grayling, the British philosopher and writer who headed the panel of six judges, said that the selections were based exclusively on merit. “The one guiding principle was to judge each book solely on its literary quality,” he said. “There was no tokenism of any kind.”
                                                                 
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