Canadian author Margaret Atwood makes Booker Prize short list

LONDON – Awards buzz is ramping up for Canadian author Margaret Atwood as one of six finalists for the Man Booker Prize.

Atwood, who won the international fiction prize in 2000 for "The Blind Assassin," has landed a spot on the short list for "The Testaments."

The much-hyped sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale," which was a 1986 Booker finalist, has also earned Canadian acclaim after being longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Atwood is joined on the Booker short list by British novelist Salman Rushdie, who won in 1981 for "Midnight's Children," and is nominated this year for "Quichotte."

American author Lucy Ellmann is also a finalist with her thousand-page tome "Ducks, Newburyport," from Windsor, Ont.-based independent publisher Biblioasis.

Rounding out the short list, announced Tuesday in London, are Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma's "An Orchestra of Minorities," British author Bernardine Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" and British-Turkish author Elif Shafak for "10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World"

Founded in 1969, the 50,000-pound (C$81,000) prize is open to English-language authors from around the world.

The winner will be announced on Oct. 14.