Man Booker Prize and others awarded to novelists

Marcella Veneziale Asst. A&E Editor

The Man Booker Prize, the United Kingdom’s most prestigious award in fictional literature, has recently been awarded to Alan Hollinghurst for his work, The Line of Beauty, which depicts the life of its protagonist, Nick Guest, in 1980s England. The winner is awarded not only £50,000 ($90,000), but is practically guaranteed fame and high book sales. The award advertises itself as a “pinnacle of ambition for every fiction writer.” While this is debatable, the importance of winning the prize is immeasurable.

Hollinghurst’s story revolves around Guest and his fascination with the lives of the Fedden family, in whose house he has recently begun renting a room. The innocent Guest is exposed to the world of high British society and is swept away by its grandeur and hidden secrets. The book also delves into the hardships faced by gay men in the 1980s. Consequently, a world unknown to Guest is revealed and we see his transformation from naïve student to world-weary adult after four turbulent years in London.

The award was established in 1968 by Tom Maschler and its creation was influenced by France’s own highly prestigious national book award, the Prix Goncourt. A conglomerate of esteemed book awards has formed as the Booker Group. Two additional prizes have more recently been created in relation to the Man Booker, the Booker Russian Novel Prize and the Caine Prize for African Writing. Such prestigious American awards as the PEN/Faulkner Award, National Book Award, and Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes are also under the auspices of the Booker Group.

The winner of the Russian Novel Prize receives $15,000 and each runner-up also receives $1,000. It is administered by the same group which awards the British prize and has become the preeminent literary honor in Russia. The Caine Prize is the most recent, having been established in 2000 by Baroness Emma Nicholson, wife of the late Sir Michael Caine, and Jonathan Taylor. This prize differs from the other Booker prizes as it awards $15,000 to the author of the year’s most exceptional short story. Interestingly, all the winners of this particular prize have developed their short stories into full-length novels.

There is a long list of rules which dictate how the winner is chosen and the way the Man Booker is distributed. The money may not be divided between authors or withheld by the winner. Each novel on the short-list and long-list must have the support of at least one judge on the deciding panel. Eligible works must be full-length novels. The book may not be an English translation and the author must be living at the time the book is eligible. An author may win the award twice, although this has yet to occur.

Besides the author, the publishers of the book also gain great acknowledgment. Many upstart publishing companies find that they are vastly more successful after one of their authors has been awarded the prize. Many of the novels spend months at the highest spot on bestseller lists, as the 2002 honored novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel did. Others are also adapted for the screen, which inevitably leads to enormous profits to the winner.

The Man Booker Prize is hardly the world’s highest fiction prize, although it is in the same category with such American awards as the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. These prizes are given particularly to American authors for a variety of fictional styles. However, the requirements for these awards differ from the Booker.
The National Book Award has a variety of different literary genres which are honored annually, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s books. Its fiction award most resembles the Booker with the exception that the author must be an American citizen. This large group also sponsors outreach programs for developing writers and promotes literacy in schools. The judging panel and staff also make reading suggestions on the Award’s official website (nationalbook.org) which itself can influence an author’s book sales.

The PEN/Faulkner Award was established by William Faulkner in 1950 with the money he received from winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. It also awards the best fictional work, either a novel or collection of short stories, by an American author. The winner receives $15,000 and the four runners-up each receive $5,000. The group is based in Washington, D.C. and also fosters youth literacy in a number of ways. The nominees of the annual award give readings of their works to local schoolchildren. The group also hosts workshops for young writers. This year’s winner is John Updike, who was awarded for his short story collection The Early Stories.

Unfortunately, there are far more stories of failure in the literary world than these rare successes, but with the programs and honors that are fostered by such prestigious awards, a new generation of writers may be inspired to continue the traditions of their craft.