Winnipeg author David Bergen makes short list for lucrative IMPAC literary prize
Posted April 12, 2012 1:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
DUBLIN – Winnipeg author David Bergen has made the short list for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the world’s most lucrative book prizes.
Bergen’s novel “The Matter with Morris” (HarperCollins Canada) is the only Canadian title in the running for this year’s honour, which awards 100,000 British pounds (about C$159,000) to the winner.
Organizers say the short list of 10 titles was chosen from 147 books nominated by public library systems in 45 countries.
Other finalists include American author Jennifer Egan’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “A Visit from the Goon Squad,” and Sierra Leone-raised Aminatta Forna’s “The Memory of Love,” which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.
“The Matter with Morris,” Bergen’s sixth novel about a middle-aged man whose son is killed in Afghanistan, made the short list for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Bergen won the Giller in 2005 for the novel “The Time in Between,” which was also longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin award. His new novel, “The Age of Hope,” will be published in the fall.
The IMPAC prize, managed by Dublin City Libraries, is billed as “the world’s most valuable annual literary award for a single work of fiction published in English.”
Canadian author Alistair MacLeod won the award in 2001 for “No Great Mischief.”
Last year’s winner was Irish writer Colum McCann for “Let the Great World Spin.”
This year’s winner will be announced on June 13.
