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Alain Mabanckou has been selected to be part of the star-studded panel judging the 2022 Booker Prize.

The author was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, twice: once in 2015, and once in 2017 for a single novel, “Black Moses”; Five years later, he is to judge the 2022 Booker Prize, alongside John Harrison, Helen Castor, Shahidha Bari, and Neil Mcgregor, chief justice of the 2022 Booker Prize.

Alain Mabanckou, often called the Black Beckett in certain circles, has authored reputable works such as Memories of the Porcupine, Black Blaza, Broken Glass, Black Moses, African Psycho, et cetera. His 1999 book Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, won the Grand Prix Littéraire D’Afrique Noir. The Congolese author has gone on to write several other books worthy of acclaim. His works have earned him so many nominations and awards including the Prix Theophraste-Renaudot (the French literary equivalent of the Grammy Award).

The Booker is an annual literary prize, awarded to works adjudged by the judges as the best novel of the year, written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. The longlist will be announced in July 2022, while the announcement of the shortlisted books would follow in September. The overall winner, announced in November 2022, would receive £50,000 and an astronomical hike in the demand and sales of their book(s).

Former winners of the Booker Prize are: Damon Galgut (2021), Douglas Stuart (2020), Bernadine Evaristo (2019), Margaret Atwood (2019), Anna Burns (2018), George Saunders (2017), Paul Beatty (2016), Marlon James (2015), Richard Flanagan (2014), Eleanor Catton (2013), Hillary Mantel (2012), Julian Barnes (2011), Yann Martel (2002), J.M Coetzee (1999 & 1983), Ben Okri (1991), and other reputable griots.

For more information on the 2022 Booker Prize click here.