From The Telegraph: The American writer Marilynne Robinson has been shortlisted for the £60,000 Man Booker International Prize. Robinson, who was nominated in 2011 for the award and won the Orange Prize in 2005, is one of ten authors from across the globe to be in the running for the prize which does not honour one particular work but a lifetime's achievement in fiction.
The prize is awarded every two years to a living author who has published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation into English.
Another American author, Lydia Davis, is also on the list. The author of short stories (sometimes very short), Davis was described in the Telegraph by Colm Tóibín as having an "original and daring mind".
Many of the other names on the list might, however, be unfamiliar to British readers. When asked whether he was surprised by some of the authors eventually chosen, the chairman of the judges, Professor Christopher Ricks, told the Telegraph: “We’re not as surprised as you lot are. You all think of yourselves as terrifically well-educated, and a few writers you’ve never heard of and ‘Good God they’re obscure!’ Has one heard of half of the great painters in the world or the great musicians?” He later admitted that, “Many of the names are people who 18 months ago I’d never heard of.”