Margaret Atwood makes Booker Prize short list, Giller Prize long list

Awards buzz is ramping up for author Margaret Atwood, who is again in the running for boththe Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Atwood, who won the former prize in 2000 for The Blind Assassin,has landed a spot on this year's short list for The Testaments, organizers announced Tuesday in London.

The much-hyped sequel to The Handmaid's Tale will be published by McClelland & Stewart on Sept. 10. In 1986,The Handmaid's Talewas a Booker finalist.

The Canadian author is joined on the short list by the U.K.'s Salman Rushdie, who won in 1981 for Midnight's Childrenand is nominated this year for Quichotte.

American writer Lucy Ellmann is also a finalist with her thousand-page tome Ducks, Newburyport, from Windsor, Ont.-based independent publisher Biblioasis.

Rounding out the list are Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma forAn Orchestra of Minorities,British author Bernardine Evaristo forGirl, Woman, Otherand British-Turkish author Elif Shafak for 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

Founded in 1969, the $81,000 Cdn prize is open to English-language fiction authors from around the world. The winner will be announced on Oct. 14.

Atwood is also on the long list for the Scotiabank Giller Prize,again forThe Testaments, organizers said Tuesday. She previously won the Canadian fiction prize,valued at$100,000,in 1996for Alias Grace.

Also on that list for a second time are Thunder Bay, Ont.-raised Michael Christie's Greenwoodand Victoria poet and novelist Steven Price for Lampedusa, both published by McClelland & Stewart.

Other noted writers receiving Giller recognition include U.K.-born, Toronto-based Adam Foulds for Dream Sequenceand Hamilton-born K.D. Miller's short story collection Late Breaking,both published by Biblioasis.

Among the newcomers are Vancouver-based poet Ian Williams for Reproductionand St. John's-based Megan Gail Coles for Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club.

Toronto's Zalika Reid-Benta is also in the running for her first short story collectionFrying Plantain.

Giller organizers say the long list was culled from 117 submissions by a jury panel featuring Canadian writers Donna Bailey Nurse, Randy Boyagoda and Jose Teodoro, joined by Scottish-Sierra Leonean author Aminatta Forna and Bosnian-American author Aleksandar Hemon.

The Giller short list will be revealed on Sept. 30, with the winner to be named at a Toronto gala on Nov. 18.