Booker Prize to mark 50th birthday by naming overall champ

LONDON – Organizers of the Man Booker Prize for fiction are marking the award’s 50th anniversary by choosing an overall champion from past winners.

There have been 51 Booker winners since 1969, since the prize has twice ended in a tie. The Golden Man Booker Prize, announced Friday, aims to find out which has best stood the test of time.

Judges will select one finalist from each decade, before a public vote decides the overall winner. The champion will be announced July 8.

Past winners of the 50,000-pound ($70,000) prize include V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.

Originally open to British, Irish and Commonwealth writers, it expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors. Since then there have been two American winners, Paul Beatty and George Saunders.