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Canadian Content-The 2002 Man Booker Prize

© Diana Adams

It is that time again, the 2002 Man Booker Prize long list has been announced, and once again a stellar cast of authors are preened, lean of calf, and waiting in the gates for the heated Sept 24 shortlist and the Oct 22,2002 finals. Despite the controversy inherent in literary prizes and whether there actually should be prizes at all in literature, I am very proud to see that the Canadians are making a very strong showing in this years contest.

The Canadian content this year amounts to a whopping 20 pct; four books out of a long list of twenty. The Canadian books and authors are : Carol Shields, Unless, Joan Barfoot Critical Injuries, Rohinton Mistry Family Matters and Yann Martel Life of Pi.

The prize worth 50,000 pounds is a close to 120,000 Cdn. To qualify for the Booker, authors must be citizens of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Previous Canadian winners have included Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient, 1992 and Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin, 2000.

Canada's authors are making impressive sized waves around the world. Once a 'provincial' outpost of very few authors, Canada has placed itself indelibly on the literary map with a ever growing, strong stable of gifted writers. Perhaps Northrop Frye, once the pre-eminent Canadian literary critic and scholar, was correct in stating 'the center of reality is wherever one happens to be, and its circumference is whatever one's imagination can make sense of.'

The Canadian authors will be against the likes of: Any Human Heart by William Boyd, The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith and The Next Best Thing by Anita Brookner. Others on the list include William Trevor's The Story of Lucy Gault, Michael Frayn's Spies and Philip Henscher's The Mulberry Empire.

Stay tuned to Literary Prize Winners for further announcements, contests and cat fights that will surround the The 2002 Booker Man Prize. Incidentally, how did the 'Man' in the title of the Man Booker Prize ever sneak by the feminists? All silly questions aside, here is the official long list: (Author,Title,Publisher)

• Dannie Abse, The Strange Case of Dr Simmonds & Dr Glas, Robson Books
• John Banville, Shroud, Picador
• Joan Barfoot, Critical Injuries, Women's Press
• William Boyd, Any Human Heart, Hamish Hamilton
• Anita Brookner, The Next Big Thing, Viking
• Robert Edric, Peacetime, Doubleday
• Michael Frayn, Spies, Faber and Faber
• Linda Grant, Still Here, Bloomsbury
• Philip Hensher, The Mulberry Empire, UHP
• Howard Jacobson, Who's Sorry Now?, Jonathan Cape

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