Canadian writer Esi Edugyan to chair 2023 Booker Prize jury

Canadian writer Esi Edugyan will chair the 2023 Booker Prize jury.

The 50,000 prize ($83,636Cdn) is awarded each year for the best original novel written in the English language, published in the U.K. and Ireland. Writers from around the world are eligible.

Edugyan has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize twice: in 2011 forHalf-Blood Bluesand again in 2018 for Washington Black. Both these books won Canada's biggest fiction award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize. They were also selected for Canada Reads: track star Donovan Bailey championed Half-Blood Bluesin 2011 while swimmer Mark Tewskbury defendedWashington Blackin 2022.

• Esi Edugyan looks at race, art & literature through the centuries

"Stendhal wrote: 'A novel is a mirror carried along a high road.'Year after year the Booker Prize encourages us to take sight of ourselves in the lives of others, to slip for the length of a story into different skins, to grapple with unfamiliar worlds that allow us to see our own afresh,"Edugyan said in a press statement.

"I'm deeply excited for the chance to immerse myself in great storytelling, in its enduring ability to shock, thrill, devastateand console. I am especially delighted to get to do so alongsidethis brilliant and accomplished panel of judges, whose breadth of experience, viewpoints and vocations will no doubt make for rich conversation."

Books publishedbetween Oct.1 2022 and Sept.30 2023 will be eligible for the 2023 prize.

Edugyan is one of Canada's most accomplished writers. In addition to being one of the few two-time winners of the Giller Prize and two-time authors featured on Canada Reads, she alsodelivered the 2021CBC Massey Lecturesand adapted the series into the nonfiction bookOut of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling.She is also the author of the novelThe Second Life of Samuel Tyne.

Raised in Calgary, Edugyan now lives in Victoria.

LISTEN | Esi Edugyan reflects on race and belonging:

Esi Edugyan wins 2nd Scotiabank Giller Prize

6 years ago

Duration 2:55

Esi Edugyan won the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize, a $100,000 literary award, for Washington Black. It's her second time winning the prize after she took it home in 2011 for Half-Blood Blues.

Joining Edugyanon the jury are British actor, writer and director Adjoa Andoh, British poet Mary Jean Chan, American Columbia University professor James Shapiro, and British actor and writerRobert Webb.

"I am hugely looking forward to working with this lively and lovely panel of readers. They bring to the task of discovering next year's best fiction a strikingly wide range of knowledge and a shared enthusiasm for storytelling in all its forms," the Booker Prize foundation director Gaby Wood said in a press statement.

"Esi Edugyan described herself, in her latest book of essays, as 'a storyteller with an interest in overlooked narratives.' That's clear from her two Booker-shortlisted novels,Washington BlackandHalf Blood Blues, which, though very different from each other, are both magnificent entertainments and subtle acts of reimagining. I have no doubt that her astuteness and calm will bring out the very best in this glorious group."

• The books that inspired Esi Edugyan

The longlist will be announced in July 2023, with the shortlist following in September. The winner will be announced in October.

WATCH | Esi Edugyan wins 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize:

Last year's winner wasSri Lankan writer Shehan Karunatilakafor novel his The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.

Since 2013, authors from any nationality have been eligible. No Canadians were recognized for the 2022 prize.

Margaret Atwood shared the 2019 prize with British novelist Bernardine Evaristo. Atwood was recognized for her novelThe Testaments, and Evaristo for her novelGirl, Woman, Other.

Two other Canadians have won the prize since its inception in 1969:Michael Ondaatjein 1992 forThe English PatientandYann Martelin 2002 forLife of Pi.