The “Man Asian Literary Prize” includes no Korean Candidates.

The Translator sends this to me. The Man Asian Literary Prize for “Asian” books written in or translated into English has announced its five candidates for the award, and none are by Korean authors.

Likely because the judges probably never heard of Korean fiction. This contest requires publishers to enter their works, and I bet no publishers of Korean fiction did this.

According to the Wikipedia the prize is:

The Man Asian Literary Prize, founded in 2007, is an annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year.

And the website of the prize is here.

The candidates are:

“Three Sisters” by Bu Feiyu
“Serious Men” by Manu Joseph
“The Thing About Thugs” by Tabish Khair (not yet available in the U.S.)
“The Changeling” by Kenzaburo Oe
“Hotel Iris” by Yoko Ogawa

When I went to check the longlist of nominees, it was similarly free of Korean authors.