The 2013 Man Booker International Prize longlist of finalists was announced on Wednesday, January 23.  Among the names:  a Canadian short-story and essay writer, Josip Novankovich.

Novankovich was born in 1956 in what is now Croatia; he was educated in medicine in Serbia.  When he moved to America where his Mother was from, he studied psychology and creative writing at Vassar Collage and Yale.
Today he lives in Montreal, Quebec and teaches creative writing at Concordia University, recently acquiring his Canadian citizenship.

The winner will be announced on May 22 in London, England.  Canadian short-story writer, Alice Munroe, won the prize in 2009.

www.themanbookerprize.com

In the Bleak Midwinter*

Canadian Winter

"Snow has fallen, and everything is white.  It is very cold...I love to close my eyes a moment and think of the land outside, white under the mingled snow and moonlight ~ white trees, white fields ~ the heaps of stone by the roadside white ~ snow in the furrows...If he were to come I could not even hear his footsteps."

~ Katherine Mansfield, 1914 (Buckinghamshire) Oct. 14, 1888- Jan. 9, 1923  Writer of short stories. Born in New Zealand.  Spent years in England where she became friends with Virgina Woolf and D.H. Lawrence.
(Photo:  for our friends wintering in Florida, U.S.A. "Close your eyes for a moment.")  Photo taken snowstorm Dec. 29, 2012.
* Poem by English poet, Christina Rossetti