• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Login
  • Register

Publishers Lunch

The Publishing Industry's Daily Essential Read

  • Publishers Marketplace
  • Site Guide
  • Help

Booker Prize Awarded to Both Atwood and Evaristo

October 14, 2019
By Michael Cader

The Booker Prize judges broke with the award’s firm policy and jointly conferred this year’s award on two novels: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. Evaristo is the first black woman to win the prize, and at 79 Atwood is the oldest winner. (Atwood won the award in 2000 for The Blind Assassin.) “We’ve both got curly hair,” Atwood said in receiving the prize, indicated she was surprised, thinking she was “too elderly, and I don’t really need the attention. It would have been embarrassing if I was alone here,” she said to Evaristo. Grove/Atlantic bought rights to Evaristo’s novel earlier this summer after it was longlisted and currently has it scheduled for December publication in trade paperback from their Black Cat imprint.

On reaching the unusual decision, chair of the judges Peter Florence said, “We tried voting; it didn’t work.” In the end, “We found that there were two novels that we desperately wanted to win this year’s prize, so we’re awarding the prize jointly to both of them.” The Booker had established a firm policy after a joint award in 1992 indicating that the prize “may not be divided or withheld.” Literary director Gaby Wood notes that other juries have wanted to split the award and were denied, and she told the judges multiple times they could not declare two winners. Florence said, “We were told quite firmly that the rules state we can only have one winner. Our consensus was that it was our decision to flout the rules and divide this year’s prize to celebrate two winners.”

Filed Under: Authors, Awards, Free

sidebar

Primary Free Sidebar

Login


Forgot password
Quick Pass users click here to log in
Get Full Access
The publishing industry's essential daily read

Each Publishers Lunch Deluxe subscription includes full access to our searchable multi-year archive of industry news, a nightly email reporting 10 to 50 deal transactions, and our database of industry contacts, scripts, and posting privileges.

Learn More

RSS Automat

  • Random House Children's Buys the Boxcar Children Series of Nearly 230 Titles from Albert Whitman June 7, 2023 Press release
  • Noah Baumbach Said to Sell Memoir to Knopf June 5, 2023 Deadline
  • Rushdie: "I’m trying to write a book about the attack on me -- what happened and what it means, not just about the attack, but around it" June 2, 2023 Guardian
  • Hollywood Studios Are Using Force Majeure Clauses to Extend Book Options for Free During Writers' Strike May 30, 2023 WSJ
  • On the Staying Power of Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" May 26, 2023 NYT
  • Another Postponement: Publishers and Internet Archive Still Negotiating Judgement, Will Try Again for June 9 May 26, 2023 PL court document
  • Martin Amis, 73, Dies of Esophogeal Cancer May 21, 2023 BBC
  • Britney Spears Concedes Delay On Her Book: "It may take me a year, maybe longer who knows ... to share my story" May 20, 2023 Instagram
  • Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson Announced for Publication September 12 May 18, 2023 Press release
  • Penguin Random House and PEN America Sue a Florida School District, Alleging Removal of Books about Race and LGBTQ+ Identify Violates First Amendment May 17, 2023 AP
© 2023 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.