Eleanor Catton, 28, New Zealand Author Won the Man Booker Prize 2013

Eleanor Catton, 28, New Zealand author won the Man Booker prize 2013 for her second novel entitled The Luminaries, published by Granta, on 15 October 2013. The prize was given at London’s Guildhall by The Duchess of Cornwall. Eleanor Catton was given a trophy, and Emmanuel Roman along with 50000 Pound.

It is very important to note that she is the last winner of the Man Booker Prize which is presently confined to the writers from the Commonwealth nations, Zimbabwe, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The Commonwealth of Nations (or just Commonwealth Nations) is actually an intergovernmental organisation of 53 member states which were mostly the territories of the British Empire. From 2014, the Man Booker Prize will be opened for the writers from all over the world, provided that the book is in English language.

Eleanor Catton is the youngest novelist to win this literary prize. Apart from this, she has also set the record of the longest winning novel- The Luminaries which is of 852 pages.

About Eleanor Catton

• Eleanor Catton is the New Zealand author who was born in the year 1985.
• She went to the Burnside High School and studied English at the University of Canterbury. She completed her Master's in Creative Writing at The Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington.
• In the year 2008, she was awarded the fellowship to the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
• In the year 2009, she was described as the 2009 golden girl of fiction.
• In the year, 2011, she was the Ursula Bethell Writer in Residence at the University of Canterbury.
• Her debut novel was The Rehearsal, in the year 2008. It was written as a part of her Master’s thesis.
• Her second novel entitled The Luminaries was published in the year 2013, for which she also won the Man Booker Prize 2013.
• Her first book The Rehearsal (2008) was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award as well as for the Dylan Thomas Prize. It was also longlisted for the Orange Prize.