Granta Best of Young British Novelists
In 1983, Granta (issue #7) published a list of 20 young British novelists as names to watch out for in the future. Since then, the magazine has repeated the exercise in 1993 (issue #43) and in 2003 (issue #81). In 1996 (issue #54), Granta also published a similar list of promising young American novelists, which was repeated during 2007 (issue #97). In 2010 issue #113 was dedicated to the best young Spanish language novelists. Many of the selections have been extremely prescient, with at least 12 of those listed either winning or being short-listed for major literary awards such as the Man Booker Prize and Whitbread Prize.
The inclusion of Adam Thirlwell and Monica Ali on the 2003 list caused some controversy, as neither had yet actually published a novel. Thirlwell's debut Politics later met with mixed reviews, although Ali's Brick Lane found much success.
More controversy ensued when Dan Rhodes contacted everyone else on the 2003 list to try to get them to make a joint statement in protest against the Iraq war, which was gaining momentum at the time. Not all the writers responded, becoming one of the reasons Rhodes almost decided to quit writing altogether.
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