Juan Goytisolo
- Lived
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Juan Goytisolo was a distinguished and prolific Spanish poet, essayist and novelist
He was considered Spain’s greatest living writer at the beginning of the 21st century, although he had lived abroad since the 1950s and in Marrakesh from 1997 until his death in 2017. On 24 November 2014 he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary award in the Spanish-speaking world.
Juan Goytisolo was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize 2011.
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.