Debut novelist takes €100,000 Impac Dublin prize
Michael Thomas's Man Gone Down beats Philip Roth, Doris Lessing and Joyce Carol Oates to prestigious award
Alison Flood reporting in the guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 June 2009
Michael Thomas's Man Gone Down beats Philip Roth, Doris Lessing and Joyce Carol Oates to prestigious award
Alison Flood reporting in the guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 June 2009
'I'm still waiting for the punch line' ... Michael Thomas. Photograph: Ben Russell/PR
A debut novelist who says he's never really had a proper job has won the world's richest literary award. American writer Michael Thomas beat authors including Philip Roth, Doris Lessing and Joyce Carol Oates to take the €100,000 (£85,000) Impac Dublin prize with his debut novel, Man Gone Down.
"I'm stunned," Thomas said today, in Dublin for the prize ceremony from his home town of New York. "I had a hard time believing I'd made the shortlist – or the longlist, for that matter – so I'm still waiting for the punch line." Currently a professor at Hunter College in New York, he said he'd use his winnings to "pay some bills". "It's too late to bet on myself [winning]," he said. "I've had an interesting life up until now, so I may get a little more conservative. I've got three kids, a mortgage, a half-built house ..."
"I'm stunned," Thomas said today, in Dublin for the prize ceremony from his home town of New York. "I had a hard time believing I'd made the shortlist – or the longlist, for that matter – so I'm still waiting for the punch line." Currently a professor at Hunter College in New York, he said he'd use his winnings to "pay some bills". "It's too late to bet on myself [winning]," he said. "I've had an interesting life up until now, so I may get a little more conservative. I've got three kids, a mortgage, a half-built house ..."
The full story at The Guardian online.
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