Founded in the year 1969, the Booker Prize is the leading literary prize across English speaking nations. It has shaped the careers of many writer before, and is known for bringing appreciation and recognition to outstanding fiction for over five decades.
Each year, a renowned judging panel chooses shortlists the best works from all submissions and eventually picks the very best as the winner. The winner is awarded £50,000 whilst each of the shortlisted authors get £2,500 each. In addition to this monetary compensation, all writers will receive dramatic response for their respective novels, quite literally giving them a huge boost their careers. Initially, this competition was only open to writers from the UK and Commonwealth countries, but in the year 2014, it expanded to all countries.
Out of the six shortlisted writers, four fail from Commonwealth countries. American authors Elizabeth Strout and Percival Everett are up against writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as finalists for the prestigious Booker Prize for fiction.
NoViolet Bulawayo, hailing from Zimbabwe submitted an animal fable “Glory”, whilst Irish writer Claire Keegan wrote “Small Things Like These”. “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida” is the work of Sri Lanka’s Shehan Karunatilake and lastly, the oldest ever Booker nominee, British fantasy author Alan Garner is shortlisted, at the age of 87 for “treacle Walker”.
The two American authors, Percival Everett and Elizabeth Strout are shortlisted for “The Trees” and “Oh William” respectively.
Former British Museum director Neil MacGregor, who is chairing the judging panel, said several of the books are inspired by real events and address long national histories of cruelty and injustice, in Sri Lanka and Ireland, Zimbabwe and the United States.
The winner of the Booker Prize 2022 will be announced in a ceremony on the 17th of October, and there is must anticipation to know, which author wins.
