• 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

  • So Far, Books by Trump Aides Are Mostly...Losers June 23, 2022 Politico
  • Macmillan Nigeria Publisher Charged With Book Fraud June 21, 2022 The Herald
  • All The Exiting Agents Seem to Think ICM's Sale to CAA Will Get Approved Shortly by DOJ June 17, 2022 Deadline
  • Spotify Closes Findaway Acquisition: "Their technology will help propel Spotify into the rapidly growing audiobooks industry" June 17, 2022 Press Release
  • Australian Author John Hughes "Unintentionally" Plagiarized The Great Gatsby And Other Famous Works In His New Novel June 15, 2022 The Guardian
  • Hatewatch Reveals Identities of Anonymous White Nationalist Book Publishers June 14, 2022 Southern Poverty Law Center
  • UK's Emerald Group Sold to Cambridge Information Group June 10, 2022 Press Release
  • Neil Gorsuch Is Writing A Book for HarperCollins, Declares First Advance of $250,000; Coney Barrett Got $425,000 First Advance After Commission June 9, 2022 Disclosure Form
  • New York State Passes Freelance Isn't Free Act June 3, 2022 Authors Guild
  • Michael Avenatti Sentenced to 4 Years for Stealing Book Proceeds from Stormy Daniels June 2, 2022 AP
© 2022 Publishers Lunch. All Rights Reserved.