Two Ransom Center authors long listed for 2011 Man Booker Prize

Authors Julian Barnes and Sebastian Barry, both featured in the Ransom Center’s current exhibition Culture Unbound: Collecting in the Twenty-First Century, were selected for the long list of nominees for the Man Booker Prize. The Ransom Center holds the archives of Barnes and Barry.

Barnes was nominated for his novel The Sense of an Ending, and Barry was nominated for On Canaan’s Side. Both are previous nominees for the award.

Barnes has been shortlisted three times for the prize: in 2005 for Arthur and George, in 1998 for England, England, and in 1984 for Flaubert’s Parrot. Barry was previously shortlisted in 2008 for The Secret Scripture and in 2005 for A Long Long Way.

Materials from both authors can be seen in the Ransom Center’s galleries in Culture Unbound, which is on display through Sunday, July 31.

The shortlist of six authors will be announced on September 6, and the winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on October 18.