Who won the 2015 Man Booker Prize and finalists for National Book Awards
A Jamaican-born writer took the Man Booker Prize for the first time, while some authors are in the running for the National Book Award in America.
'A Brief History of Seven Killings' is by Marlon James.
Auhor Marlon James recently became the first Jamaican-born writer to win the Man Booker Prize, while some writers came a little closer to capturing the National Book Award in the US.
James won the Man Booker Prize for his work 鈥淎 Brief History of Seven Killings,鈥� which ranges from the attempted murder of Bob Marley to the politics of Jamaica to the drug culture in New York and other topics.
Barnes & Noble reviewer Liesel Schillinger called the novel a 鈥渕agisterial, viscerally lyric epic鈥� the sharp-edged pleasures of this book come from its protean, potent language.鈥�
It was recently decided that the Man Booker Prize would be open to any author whose book was available in English and published in the UK. The decision was met with criticism from some; Americans were eligible for the award for the first time last year, but the prize was won by Australian-born author Richard Flanagan for 鈥淭he Narrow Road to the Deep North.鈥澛�
Meanwhile, the list of contenders for the National Book Award has been shortened. The finalists for the fiction award are Angela Flournoy for 鈥淭he Turner House,鈥� Karen E. Bender for 鈥淩efund,鈥� Lauren Groff for 鈥淔ates and Furies,鈥� Hanya Yanagihara for 鈥淎 Little Life,鈥� and Adam Johnson for 鈥淔ortune Smiles.鈥澛�
Meanwhile, for the nonfiction award, the finalists are Sally Mann for 鈥淗old Still,鈥� Ta-Nehisi Coates for 鈥淏etween the World and Me,鈥� Carla Power for 鈥淚f the Oceans Were Ink,鈥� Tracy K. Smith for 鈥淥rdinary Light,鈥� and Sy Montgomery for 鈥淭he Soul of an Octopus.鈥�
Ali Benjamin made the cut for the young people鈥檚 literature finalist list for 鈥淭he Thing About Jellyfish,鈥� as did Steve Sheinkin for 鈥淢ost Dangerous,鈥� Laura Ruby for 鈥淏one Gap,鈥� Neal Shusterman for 鈥淐hallenger Deep,鈥� and Noelle Stevenson for 鈥淣imona.鈥�
The poetry contenders are Patrick Phillips for 鈥淓legy for a Broken Machine,鈥� Ada Lim贸n for 鈥淏right Dead Things,鈥� Robin Coste Lewis for 鈥淰oyage of the Sable Venus,鈥� Terrance Hayes for 鈥淗ow to Be Drawn,鈥� and Ross Gay for 鈥淐atalog of Unabashed Gratitude.鈥澛�
The winners will be announced on Nov. 18.