Margaret Atwood and British writer Bernardine Evaristo have split the Booker Prize Monday when the judging panel named two winners of the renowned fiction prize. It was the first time the prize has been split. Chairman Peter Florence said the five judges simply couldn’t choose between Atwood’s apocalyptic thriller The Testaments and Evaristo’s kaleidoscope of black women’s stories, Girl, Woman, Other. Partly inspired by the environmental protesters of Extinction Rebellion, who were demonstrating near the prize ceremony’s venue in London’s financial district, Florence said the judges refused to back down when told the rules prohibit more than one winner. “Our consensus was that it was our decision to flout the rules,” he said. “I think laws are inviolable and rules are adaptable to the circumstance.”
Organizers insist it won’t happen again
Prize organizers didn’t see it that way. Gaby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said prize trustees repeatedly told the judges they couldn’t have two winners, but they “essentially staged a sit-in in the judging room” as deliberations dragged on for five hours. Wood insisted the decision “doesn’t set a precedent.” It means Atwood and Evaristo will split the 50,000 pound (around $83,000 Cdn) Booker Prize purse — with CBC.
