Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Judges announced for the inaugural Folio Prize 2014

The jury for the Folio Prize, worth £40,000 and in its first year, includes distinguished international novelists and critics.

Sarah Hall, one of the judges of the inaugural Folio Prize
Sarah Hall, one of the judges of the inaugural Folio Prize Photo: Richard Thwaites
The Folio Prize has today announced the panel of judges for the award's inaugural year. The poet, novelist and critic Lavinia Greenlaw has been drawn as chair of a jury comprising international writers Michael Chabon, Sarah Hall, Nam Le and Pankaj Mishra.

The Folio Prize, worth £40,000, is the first major English-language book prize open to writers from all over the world. Submission criteria are only that the book is fiction and in English, regardless of form or the nationality of the author. It was created by the Literature Prize Foundation, a registered charity whose aim is to bring great writing and an enthusiasm for reading to the public - and announced, somewhat controversially, in apparent counterpoint to the judging of the Man Booker Prize in 2011. Since then, members of that jury have been invited to become part of the Folio Academy, a permanent body from which a team of judges is selected each year by lot.
Andrew Kidd, agent, former publisher and the prize's founder, said: “I cannot imagine a more dynamic group to fulfil the prize's aim of connecting great new writing with readers”.
Michael Chabon, the American author of such daring and critically acclaimed novels as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Wonder Boys, said upon his selection as one of this year's judges that "great literature respects no borders or boundaries, and it's a thrill to be a part of the first literary prize designed to honour that crucial disrespect".

Sarah Hall, who was recently chosen as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists, anticipates that “as a reader and a judge you have to transcend personal taste and preferences, and consider the particular vision, ambition and execution of each work”.

Uniquely among literary prizes, the books to be considered are nominated by members of the Academy - most of whom are writers themselves, and who are recused from judging if they have a book published in the course of the year for which their name has been drawn. The academicians are asked to nominate up to three books, and to rate them in order of preference. The 60 books with the most nominations will become the pool from which the shortlist is drawn - with a further 20 slots taken up by books successfully championed by their publishers. Lavinia Greenlaw describes the nomination procedure as reflecting "how closely writing is bound up with reading, and the pleasure we all take in discovering and sharing books”.

The Academy comprises well over a hundred members. Earlier this year its composition sparked a row, when Mariella Frostrup, who was not invited to join its ranks, accused the organisers of being elitist. “There’s no such thing as a good book that doesn’t entertain,” she said.

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