Nobel Prize 2011 for Literature goes to Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer

The Swedish Academy has awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature to the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer. Sweden's most famous poet becomes the 104th literature laureate, and is the first poet to take the laurels since Poland's Wislawa Szymborska in 1996. Praised by the judges for his "condensed translucent images", which give us "fresh access to reality", Tranströmer's surreal explorations of the inner world and its relation to the jagged landscape of his native country have been translated into more than 50 languages.

Born in Stockholm in 1931 and raised by his mother, a teacher. Tranströmer studied at the University of Stockholm and worked as a psychologist at an institution for young offenders before taking to writing poetry full time.

The Scottish poet Robin Fulton, who translated the volume New Collected Poems and has worked on Tranströmer's writing for years, said: " He's terribly famous already, just about as famous as a poet could be. Some writers become famous after they get the Nobel – he was famous before." The poet Robin Robertson, who wrote versions of Tranströmer's poems for the collection The Deleted World, said: "Readers of Tomas Tranströmer had almost given up any hope that this extraordinary poet might ever be recognised by his own country and receive the Nobel Prize."

Fulton said: "Some poets use their own language so densely they won't translate at all. Tranströmer is not one of these. In many ways the language he uses is relatively unadventurous and simple [but] he gives people unusual images [which are] sometimes very surprising and give the reader a shock. That should be what poets do."

Tranströmer has described his poems as "meeting places", where dark and light, interior and exterior collide to give a sudden connection with the world, history or ourselves. According to the poet: "The language marches in step with the executioners. Therefore we must get a new language."

Julian Barnes wins Man Booker Prize 2011 for The Sense of an Ending

Julian Barnes was named the winner of this year's £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for The Sense of an Ending on October 18, 2011. Dame Stella Rimington, Chair of the 2011 judges, made the announcement at the awards dinner at London's Guildhall, broadcast by the BBC. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book.

Barnes has been shortlisted three times in the past for Arthur and George (2005), England (1998) and Flaubert's Parrot (1984). Barnes' first novel for six years, laced with trademark precision, dexterity and insight, The Sense of an Ending is the work of one of the world's most distinguished writers. At the time of the shortlist announcement, 2011 judge Gaby Wood commented, “that the tragedy trapped in this mundane life should be so moving, and so keenly felt by the character that he can only confront it half-blindly and in fragments, is the mark of a truly masterful novel.”

Julian Barnes is the author of ten previous novels, three books of short stories and three collections of journalism. Now 65, his work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In France, he is the only writer to have won both the Prix Médicis (for Flaubert's Parrot) and the Prix Femina (for Talking it Over). He was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2004 and the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2011 for lifetime achievement in literature. He lives in London.
www.themanbookerprize.com

2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction Shortlist

The shortlist announced on September 6, Julian Barnes, Carol Birch, Patrick deWitt, Esi Edugyan, Stephen Kelman and A.D. Miller announced as the six shortlisted authors for the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in new fiction and rewards the year's best novel, securing international renown for its shortlisted and longlisted authors and giving book lovers worldwide a choice reading list.

The shortlist was announced by Chair of Judges, author and former Director-General at a press conference held at Man's London headquarters. Chair of judges, Dame Stella Rimington, comments: "Inevitably it was hard to whittle down the longlist to six titles. We were sorry to lose some great books. But, when push came to shove, we quickly agreed that these six very different titles were the best."

The six books, selected during the shortlist are,

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
Carol Birch Jamrach's Menagerie (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt The Sisters Brothers (Granta)
Esi Edugyan Half Blood Blues (Serpent's Tail)
Stephen Kelman Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
A.D. Miller Snowdrops (Atlantic)

American author Philip Roth was announced as the winner of the fourth Man Booker International Prize at a press conference at the Sydney Opera House on May 18, 2011. Roth was chosen from a list of 13 eminent contenders. Philip Roth is one of the world's most prolific, celebrated writers. Born in March 1933 in New Jersey, Roth is best known for his 1969 novel Portnoy's Complaint, and for his late-1990s trilogy comprising the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Pastoral (1997), I Married a Communist (1998), and The Human Stain (2000).

The Man Booker International Prize, worth £60,000, is awarded once every two years for an achievement in fiction on the world stage. It is presented to a living author for a body of work published either originally in English or widely available in translation in the English language. It has previously been awarded to Ismail Kadaré in 2005, Chinua Achebe in 2007 and Alice Munro in 2009.

The judging panel for the Man Booker International Prize 2011 consists of writer, academic and rare-book dealer Dr Rick Gekoski (Chair), publisher, writer and critic Carmen Callil, and award-winning novelist Justin Cartwright.

Rick Gekoski, Chair of the judging panel, commented, "For more than 50 years Philip Roth's books have stimulated, provoked
and amused an enormous, and still expanding, audience. His imagination has not only recast our idea of Jewish identity, it has also reanimated fiction, and not just American fiction, generally. His career is remarkable in that he starts at such a high level, and keeps getting better. In his 50s and 60s, when most novelists are in decline, he wrote a string of novels of the highest, enduring quality. Indeed, his most recent, Nemesis (2010), is as fresh, memorable, and alive with feeling as anything he has written. His is an astonishing achievement.

The other contenders for the Man Booker International 2011 were: 

Juan Goytisolo (Spain)
James Kelman (UK)
John le Carré (UK)
Amin Maalouf (Lebanon)
David Malouf (Australia)
Dacia Maraini (Italy)
Rohinton Mistry (India/Canada)
Philip Pullman (UK)
Marilynne Robinson (USA)
Su Tong (China)
Anne Tyler (USA)
Wang Anyi (China)