New rules 'Man Booker Prize' 2014 gets six Judges

With the announcement of the judges, few days ago, countdown to the Man Booker Prize 2014 has started, just as the new rules of the prize is facing a test.

Chaired by the philosopher and writer, AC Graying, the 2014 jurors include Jonathan Bata, an Oxford Professor of English Literature and biographer; Sarah Churcwell, UEA’s Professor of American Literature; Dr Daniel Glaser, neuroscientist and cultural commentator; Dr Alastair Niven, former Director of Literature at the British Council and at the Arts Council; and Erica Wagner, journalist and writer.

The Man Booker Prize judges

The new rules, released few months ago opens the prize up to writers of any nationality, writing originally in English, for novels published in the UK by an established imprint between 1 October 2013 and 30 September 2014. The expanded prize, according to the organizers, will recognise, celebrate and embrace authors of literary fiction writing in English, whether from Chicago, Sheffield or Shanghai.

New Zealand author, Eleanor Catton, 28, won the 2013 edition with her work The Luminaries. Catton, according to the organisers, is the youngest of The Man Booker Prize winner in the award's history, having completed the book when she was 27. She also has the record of “the longest ever Man Booker winning novel (832 pages).

 For the inaugural year of the new rules, the number of judges increases from five to six: three new judges and three who have previously judged the prize - Alastair Niven in 1994, Erica Wagner in 2002 and AC Grayling in 2003.