Press Release: Prizes and Awards
The Literature Prize
Posted at 11:53AM Wednesday 12 Oct 2011
We are delighted to announce the launch of a new literary prize.The Literature Prize will be for the best novel written in the English language and published in the UK in a given year, and a writer's country of origin will not be a factor. Our aim is to establish a clear and uncompromising standard of excellence, and the prize judges will be selected in rotation from an academy of experts in the field of literature. The prize will offer readers a selection of novels that, in the view of these expert judges, are unsurpassed in their quality and ambition. For many years this brief was fulfilled by the Booker (latterly the Man Booker) Prize. But as numerous statements by that prize's administrator and this year's judges illustrate, it now prioritises a notion of 'readability' over artistic achievement. We believe though that great writing has the power to change us, to make us see the world a little differently from how we saw it before, and that the public deserves a prize whose sole aim is to bring to our attention and celebrate the very best novels published in our time. The Literature Prize has been enthusiastically endorsed by numerous people in the publishing industry, as well as writers including John Banville, Pat Barker, Mark Haddon, Jackie Kay, Nicole Krauss, Claire Messud, Pankaj Mishra and David Mitchell, with an additional number of high-profile writers offering strong support behind the scenes. We are currently procuring funding for the prize and will be making an announcement about this soon. The Advisory Board of the Literature Prize For further information please contact: Andrew Kidd (andrew@aitkenalexander.co.uk or +44 7525 210 780)
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