A big literary honour today for Canadian writer Josip Novakovich. He's one of 10 finalists for the Man Booker International Prize for fiction.
Novakovich, is originally from Croatia, and now lives in Montreal where he teaches creative writing at Concordia University.
The Man Booker International Prize is essentially a lifetime achievement award open to authors of all nationalities, whose work is available in English.
It comes with a prize of $95,000 and is awarded every two years. This year's winner will be announced in London on March 22.
Novakovich was born in Yugoslavia in 1956.
He grew up in a Croatian town near the Hungarian border under the authoritarian rule of former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito - aka Tito.
Novakovich studied medicine in Serbia and moved to the United States when he was 20 to continue his education.
He has published a novel, 'April Fool's Day', which has been translated into ten languages).
He's also published three story collections - 'Infidelities: Stories of War and Lust', 'Yolk', and 'Salvation and Other Disasters' - as well two collections of narrative essays.
His work was anthologized in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize collection, and O. Henry Prize Stories.
He has received the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Ingram Merrill Award, and an American Book Award.
You can read more about his work here, including a few interviews with Novakovich.
Along with Novakovich, the other finalists for the award are...
Marilynne Robinson - United States
Aharon Appelfeld - Israel
Yan Lianke - China
Lydia Davis - United States
Intizar Husain - Pakistan
Marie NDiaye - France
U.R. Ananthamurthy - India
Vladimir Sorokin - Russia
Peter Stamm - Switzerland
Canada's Alice Munro is a previous winner of the Man Booker International Prize for fiction.
It's not to confused with the Man Booker Prize for novel of the year.
Related stories
Does Canada Need An Exclusive Literary Prize For Women Writers? The Facts Suggest Yes
Take A Book, Leave A Book: The Little Free Library
The House Of Books: This Guy Turned His House Into A Public Library
Comments
Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are pre-moderated/reviewed and published according to our submission guidelines.