The Booker Prize has chosen a name for its award – photo statuette

The Booker Prize has revived the award that used to honor its laureates – an original statuette of the authorship of children’s illustrator Jan Penkowski. And with the help of voting, she chose a name for her.

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“We asked you to help us name the Booker Prize award. Now we can announce that the title “Iris” has become the winner, which will become part of the history of the Booker Prize“, says the message on the official website of The Booker Prize.

The competition was announced at the beginning of 2023. Fans of reading books were invited to choose a name for the reproduced original statuette, designed by children’s book illustrator Jan Penkowski for the first Booker Prize ceremony in 1969.

Bernice Rubens with a statuette in 1970. Photo: Oxford Brookes Library

After Penkovsky’s death in February 2022, the organizers of the Booker Prize decided to revive the presentation of these statuettes to the winners in his memory. In October of the same year, the statuette was received by Shehan Karunatilaka, who became the winner with the novel “Seven months of Maali Almeida“.

Shehan Karunatilaka with the award. Photo: David Parry / Booker Prize Foundation

More than 800 people offered their options for names, among them were authors of the past and present, characters of outstanding literary works and even ancient goddesses and muses. From hundreds of applications, the panel of judges chose six names, which were put up for public voting – Bernie, Beryl, Iris, Minerva, Calliope and Janina.

Although the name Bernie received the most votes – in honor of Bernardine Evaristo, the first black woman to win the award in 2019, the writer herself proposed the name to honor one of the great writers of the past.

Photo: thebookerprizes.com

“I am surprised and delighted that Bernie’s name was nominated by readers for the Booker Prize and that it received the highest number of votes. But as the only living author on the list, I think it would be more appropriate if this honor went to a writer who is no longer with us“, Evaristo said.

So the Booker Prize Foundation decided to name the statuette with the name that came in second place in terms of the number of votes – Irisin honor of the British writer Iris Murdoch, winner of the 1978 prize for the novel “Sea, sea“.

Iris Murdoch. Photo: Brian Harris/Independent

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