Margaret Atwood makes Booker Prize short list, Giller Prize long list
The Testaments, upcoming sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, in the running for both literary awards
Awards buzz is ramping up for author Margaret Atwood, who is again in the running for both the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Atwood, who won the former prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin, has landed a spot on this year's short list for The Testaments, organizers announced Tuesday in London.
The much-hyped sequel to The Handmaid's Tale will be published by McClelland & Stewart on Sept. 10. In 1986, The Handmaid's Tale was a Booker finalist.
The Canadian author is joined on the short list by the U.K.'s Salman Rushdie, who won in 1981 for Midnight's Children and is nominated this year for Quichotte.
American writer Lucy Ellmann is also a finalist with her thousand-page tome Ducks, Newburyport, from Windsor, Ont.-based independent publisher Biblioasis.
Rounding out the list are Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma for An Orchestra of Minorities, British author Bernardine Evaristo for Girl, Woman, Other and British-Turkish author Elif Shafak for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.
We are pleased to announce our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BookerPrize2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BookerPrize2019</a> shortlist. Watch what our judges had to say about the six selected books. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BookerPrize2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BookerPrize2019</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FinestFiction?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FinestFiction</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BookLoversDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BookLoversDay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/shortlist?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#shortlist</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/announcement?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#announcement</a> <a href="https://t.co/eq3LdFsohE">pic.twitter.com/eq3LdFsohE</a>
—@TheBookerPrizesFounded in 1969, the $81,000 Cdn prize is open to English-language fiction authors from around the world. The winner will be announced on Oct. 14.
Atwood is also on the long list for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, again for The Testaments, organizers said Tuesday. She previously won the Canadian fiction prize, valued at $100,000, in 1996 for Alias Grace.
Also on that list for a second time are Thunder Bay, Ont.-raised Michael Christie's Greenwood and Victoria poet and novelist Steven Price for Lampedusa, both published by McClelland & Stewart.
Other noted writers receiving Giller recognition include U.K.-born, Toronto-based Adam Foulds for Dream Sequence and Hamilton-born K.D. Miller's short story collection Late Breaking, both published by Biblioasis.
Among the newcomers are Vancouver-based poet Ian Williams for Reproduction and St. John's-based Megan Gail Coles for Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club.
It is with great pleasure that we introduce to you the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. <a href="https://t.co/YQ2p3zXMVg">https://t.co/YQ2p3zXMVg</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GillerPrize?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GillerPrize</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ScotiabankGillerPrize?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ScotiabankGillerPrize</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ScotiaLovesBooks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ScotiaLovesBooks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CanLit?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CanLit</a> <a href="https://t.co/r6Hu7UliZt">pic.twitter.com/r6Hu7UliZt</a>
—@GillerPrizeToronto's Zalika Reid-Benta is also in the running for her first short story collection Frying Plantain.
Giller organizers say the long list was culled from 117 submissions by a jury panel featuring Canadian writers Donna Bailey Nurse, Randy Boyagoda and Jose Teodoro, joined by Scottish-Sierra Leonean author Aminatta Forna and Bosnian-American author Aleksandar Hemon.
The Giller short list will be revealed on Sept. 30, with the winner to be named at a Toronto gala on Nov. 18.