London: Canadian author Margaret Atwood and British writer Bernardine Evaristo jointly won the prestigious 2019 Booker Prize on Monday after judges broke the rules by declaring a tie, the first since 1992.
British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie’s tragicomic Quichotte was among the six books shortlisted for the prize. Atwood, 79, is the oldest ever Booker winner, while Evaristo, 60, is the first black woman to win the award since its creation in 1969.
The Booker rules say the prize must not be divided, but the judges insisted they “couldn’t separate” Atwood’s The Testament’ and ‘Girl, Woman, Other by Evaristo.
The rules were changed after the last tie in 1992, and organisers told this year’s judges that they were not allowed to pick two winners. But after five hours of deliberations, Peter Florence, the chair of the five-member judging panel, said: “It was our decision to flout the rules.”
The judges said they strongly wanted both the authors to split the GBP 50,000 award at a gala ceremony at Guildhall here.
“The more we talked about them, the more we found we loved them both so much we wanted them both to win,” Florence said. Atwood expressed her joy at sharing the award with a younger writer.
Atwood joked to her co-winner: “I would have thought I would have been too elderly, and I kind of don’t need the attention, so I’m very glad that you’re getting some.”
“It would have been quite embarrassing for me… if I had been alone here, so I’m very pleased that you’re here too,” she said.
Evaristo said, “We black British women know that if we don’t write ourselves into literature no one else will.” “It’s so incredible to share this with Margaret Atwood, who’s such a legend and so generous,” she said, after the shock joint win was announced. (PTI)
