A S Byatt

Booker winner takes Montreal literary prize

A.S. Byatt to collect $10,000 prize

27 November 2008

A.S. Byatt, who won the Booker Prize in 1990 with her novel Possession, has been named the winner of the 2009 Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix.

The prize, worth $10,000 (Canadian dollars), will be awarded next spring during the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival, which runs April 22 to 26.

Previous winners of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix include Margaret Atwood (winner of the Booker Prize in 2000), Paul Auster and Norman Mailer.

The award honours a lifetime of literary achievement by an international writer.

This is the first time it's been given to a writer from England.

Byatt will also launch her latest novel, The Children's Book, on the festival's opening night.

The Man Booker Prize Fiction at its finest