British writer wins 114,000-dollar Irish Literary Prize

British writer wins 114,000-dollar Irish Literary Prize
REUTERS

DUBLIN, MAY 10: A young British novelist has won the world's richest prize for a single work of fiction, beating some of the biggest names in contemporary literature.

Nicola Barker, 34, scooped 100,000 Irish pounds (114,000 dollars) on Tuesday along with the annual international IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, fending off competition from luminaries such as Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison and veteran US novelist Philip Roth.

Barker, described by judges as "one of the most interesting writers in Britain", was nominated for her novel Wide Open, a tale about a group of misfits coming to terms with life during a sojourn on a remote island.

The competition's judges hailed the novel's "razor-sharp comic sensibility and flawless structure" and said it took magic realism and the grotesque tradition to new and risky heights.

Morrison had been nominated for her book Paradise and Roth for the best-selling I Married A Communist.

Other writers on the star-studded shortlist of seven included Scottish poet and novelist Jackie Kaye, selected for The Trumpet, Irish writer Colum Mccann for This Side Of Brightness, and US-based Michael Cunningham, whose nominated book The Hours has already won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize.

This year's IMPAC shortlist was whittled down from a list of 101 titles nominated by public libraries in more than 100 cities in 34 countries, organisers said.

The five-strong judging panel included Irish novelist Colm Toibin, Suzi Feay, literary editor of the London-based Independent on Sunday, and Josyane Savigneau, cultural editor of Le Monde in Paris.