Kenyan writer and academic, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, has been nominated for the 2021 International Booker Prize.
A historic feat, the celebrated author has become the first writer to be nominated for the International Booker Prize for authoring and translating the same book, “The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gikuyu and Mumbi’’ He is also the first nominee for a work originally written in an indigenous African language.
The Booker Prize aims to encourage more publishing and reading of quality works of imagination from all over the world and to give greater recognition to the role of translators. Both novels and short-story collections are eligible.
The contribution of both author and translator is given equal recognition, with the £50,000 prize split evenly between them. Each shortlisted author and translator also receives £1,000, bringing the total value of the prize to £62,000. This year the judges considered 125 books.
The longlist was selected by a judging panel consisting of cultural historian and novelist, Lucy Hughes-Hallett (chair); journalist and writer, Aida Edemariam; Man Booker-shortlisted novelist, Neel Mukherjee; Professor of the History of Slavery, Olivette Otele; and poet, translator, and biographer, George Szirtes.
The final shortlist for the prize will be announced on 22 April 2021, and the winner announced on 2 June 2021 in a virtual celebration from Coventry, City of Culture 2021.
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