Nigerian writer selected as judge for 2019 Man Booker International Prize

A Nigerian novelist and satirist, Elnathan John on Friday was listed among the five-member panel announced by the organiser of the award on its website as one of the judges for the 2019 Man Booker International Prize.

The Man Booker International Prize, which was launched in 2005, is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom.

The Kaduna-born writer and lawyer, whose debut novel “Born on a Tuesday’, was published in 2015, has been selected twice for the Caine Prize for African Writing.

In 2016, he was shortlisted for the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, Africa’s largest literary award, and for the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2017, among others.

He writes a weekly satirical column for the Sunday Trust Newspaper, and speaks regularly on Nigerian literature, media and politics.

“Chaired by Bettany Hughes, award-winning historian, author and broadcaster, the panel consists of writer, translator and president of English PEN Maureen Freely.

“Others are philosopher Professor Angie Hobbs FRSA; novelist and satirist Elnathan John; and essayist and novelist Pankaj Mishra.

“The 2019 judging panel will be looking for the best work of translated fiction, selected from entries published in the UK and Ireland between 1 May 2018 and 30 April 2019,” it says.

The award is given annually to a single book in English translation, with a £50,000 prize for the winning title, shared equally between author and translator.

The 2018 prize was won by the Polish author, Olga Tokarczuk, and her translator, Jennifer Croft, for…., published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.