Man Booker Prize Plans 50th Anniversary Celebrations for 2018
In 2018, the Man Booker Prize will celebrate 50 years with a year-long slew of anniversary celebrations and a campaign to introduce new audiences to its winning, shortlisted, and longlisted authors. The Booker Prize Foundation, with sponsorship from the Man Group, is running a range of global activities to engage the public in the rich heritage of the prize and inspire readers and writers for the next 50 years.
The flagship event, run in partnership with Southbank Centre, the U.K.’s largest arts center, is the Fiction at its Finest Festival, which will run from July 6-8 at the Southbank Centre in London. The Man Booker Prize has also teamed up with literary festivals across the world for 2018 to bring the celebrations to a global audience. In January, Michael Ondaatje, joint winner of the 1992 prize for The English Patient, will appear at Jaipur Literary Festival, while Fiona Mozley, shortlisted earlier this year for Elmet, is confirmed to speak at the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias. In April, 2013 winner Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries, will appear at the Trinidad and Tobago BOCAS Literary Festival, and over the summer, Margaret Atwood, who won in 2000 for The Blind Assassin, will be at Hay-on-Wye. Further appearances will be announced in the new year.
The BBC is the prize’s broadcast partner and will air a range of programs around the anniversary and the Fiction at its Finest Festival in 2018. Additional partnerships and initiatives will be announced in the new year.
