Gabriel García Márquez
- Lived
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Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist
Known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America, he was considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, particularly in the Spanish language. He left law school to pursue a career in journalism and went on to write many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). He was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.
He was shortlisted, for his entire body of work, for the Man Booker International Prize 2005.
Background
Between 2005 - 2015, the Man Booker International Prize recognised one writer for their achievement in fiction.
Worth £60,000, the prize was awarded every two years to a living author who had published fiction either originally in English or whose work is generally available in translation in the English language.
The winner was chosen solely at the discretion of the judging panel and there were no submissions from publishers.
The Man Booker International Prize was different from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that it highlighted one writer’s overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. In focusing on overall literary excellence, the judges considered a writer’s body of work rather than a single novel.
