Greater Victoria writer Esi Edugyan is the chair of judges for the Booker Prize 2023.
The Booker Prize recognizes original novels and is the leading literary award in the English-speaking world.
“I’m deeply excited for the chance to immerse myself in great storytelling, in its enduring ability to shock, thrill, devastate and console,” Edugyan said. “I am especially delighted to get to do so alongside this brilliant and accomplished panel of judges, whose breadth of experience, viewpoints and vocations will no doubt make for rich conversation.”
The shortlist of six books will be announced on Sept. 21. The winner will be named on Nov. 26 and will take away £50,000.
Books have to be published in the U.K. or Ireland to be eligible.
“Year after year the Booker Prize encourages us to take sight of ourselves in the lives of others, to slip for the length of a story into different skins and to grapple with unfamiliar worlds that allow us to see our own afresh,” Edugyan said.
Edugyan was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Half-Blood Blues in 2011 and again for Washington Black in 2018.
The 2022 winner was The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.
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