Man Booker Prize 2014 longlist: Third of authors from America as award goes global

International authors are included on the longlist for the first time in 43 years

US author Joshua Ferris has made the first global Man Booker Prize longlist (Rex)

A third of the authors on this year’s Man Booker longlist are American as, for the first time since it began 43 years ago, the prestigious prize goes global and welcomes international writers.

Previously, the Man Booker was open to authors from the UK and Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe exclusively but now, all nationalities are included, so long as their work was written in English originally and published in the UK.

The rules changed at the end of 2013 to embrace “the freedom of English in all its vigour, its vitality, its versatility and its glory wherever it may be”.

The four US authors to make history include Joshua Ferris with To Rise Again at a Decent Hour; Karen Joy Fowler with We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves; Joseph O’Neill with The Dog; and Richard Powers with Orfeo.

British authors to make the 'Booker Dozen' include the Independent columnist Howard Jacobson, Paul Kingsnorth, David Mitchell, Neel Mukherjee, David Nicholls and Ali Smith.

The Man Booker Prize longlist

Joshua Ferris (American) - To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (Viking)

Richard Flanagan (Australian) - The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Chatto & Windus)

Karen Joy Fowler (American) - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Serpent's Tail)

Siri Hustvedt (American) - The Blazing World (Sceptre)

Howard Jacobson (British) - J (Jonathan Cape)

Paul Kingsnorth (British) - The Wake (Unbound)

David Mitchell (British) - The Bone Clocks (Sceptre)

Neel Mukherjee (British) - The Lives of Others (Chatto & Windus)

David Nicholls (British) - Us (Hodder & Stoughton)

Joseph O'Neill (Irish/American) - The Dog (Fourth Estate)

Richard Powers (American) - Orfeo (Atlantic Books)

Ali Smith (British) - How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton)

Niall Williams (Irish) - History of the Rain (Bloomsbury)