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Friday 13 December 2013

Rival to Booker Prize secures sponsorship

The new award will award its first prize in March 2014

Hilary Mantel, winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize
Hilary Mantel, winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex Features

The Literature Prize, set up as a rival to the Man Booker, has secured a sponsor.

The sponsor’s identity has not yet been announced, although the £40,000 prize will adopt the sponsor’s name when it is revealed in February 2013.

The first prize will consider books published between January and December 2013 and will be awarded in March 2014. It aims "to put great literature at the centre of people's lives".

The new award, set up by agent Andrew Kidd, will differ to the Booker, as there will be no restriction on a writer's country of origin. As the organisers say, “the sole criterion will be excellence”.

Kidd commented: "As with all book prizes, our main aim is to get more good books into the hands of readers, so we are delighted to have the opportunity to make that happen. The prize’s international scope, its openness to all forms of fiction, will I hope make for an exciting and surprising selection of books, and frankly I’m now just impatient to get started.”

The new prize was originally born out of controversy. It was announced less than a week before the 2011 Booker winner was decided, after the organisers of the new award accused the 2011 Booker judges of putting “readability over artistic achievement” in their judging criteria.

The chair of the 2011 Booker judging panel, Dame Stella Rimington, declared of the 2011 shortlist that she wanted people “to buy these books and read them, not buy them and admire them”. Kidd rejected this emphasis on "readability", intending the new award to "establish a clear and uncompromising standard of excellence."

"There's nothing wrong with readability, but not all writing sets out to do that. Some writers aspire to do something finer,” Kidd said.

The 2011 Booker shortlist was the fastest selling since records began and was defended by many as being a list that attracted new readers. One of the authors shortlisted, Stephen Kelman, commented “I think if they are bemoaning the fact there are some books here that actually have plots and are page-turners, then they’re barking up the wrong tree.”

The five judges of the new award will be drawn from a body of writers, critics and academics from the world of literature.

The award will be awarded annually for any work of fiction written in the English language and published in the UK.

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