Source : Times of India
The Man Group ended their 18 years’ sponsorship of the prestigious Booker Prize this year. This was followed by Crankstart taking over officially on June 1 as the sponsor of the Prize for the next five years. And so, the prizes are now renamed as The Booker and The International Booker Prize.
According to a report by The Bookseller, Crankstart is a charitable foundation set in 2000 and it is run by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Sir Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman, his wife. It aims to support “the forgotten, the dispossessed, the unfortunate, the oppressed and causes where some help makes all the difference”. Though it was announced in February that they’ll be the new sponsor of the prize, they officially took over recently.
As a part of the rebranding of the Booker Prize, they now have a new website, social media handle, and logo.
The Man Booker Prize 2018 was awarded to Anna Burns for her novel Milkman. Jokha Alharthi (writer) and Marilyn Booth (translator) won the Man Booker International Prize 2019 for their work Celestial Bodies.
This year’s Booker Prize will be announced on October 14, 2019.