Paul Beatty Wins Man Booker Prize, Becomes First American to Bag the Title

Paul Beatty has put his name in history after becoming the very first American to bag the Man Booker Prize, notorious for being Britain's most sought-after literary award. The novelist will receive an award and a cash price of 50,000 pounds ($61,000). Thanks to his novel The Sellout.

Such award was previously given only to writers from Ireland, Britain, and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth refers to the alliance of countries that were part of the British Empire in the past. Now, it is open to all authors who write originally in English, with books that were published in the United Kingdom. The winner is picked by five judges who are known to read one book per day in a span of six months. Anyone who wins the title usually experiences a boost in sales and profile. For this year, there were two Americans and three Britons vying for the title.

The Sellout is a satire about race relations in the United States. It was a novel published in 2015 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. The novel is set in Los Angeles and is a person who grows artisanal watermelons and marijuana for a living. When asked why Beatty decided to write the novel, he simply says that it is because he's broke.

Camilla, Prince Charles' wife and the Duchess of Cornwall, will give the award to Beatty in a ceremony at the medieval Guildhall. Past winners of this prestigious award were Salman Rushdie, Hilary Mantel, and Margaret Atwood. Last year, the award was given to Marlon James because of his book A Brief History of Seven Killings, which is a book that talks about an attempt to kill the musician Bob Marley in the year 1976. Like Beatty, James also made history by becoming the very first Jamaican author to accept the Man Booker Prize.