Booker Prize shortlist eschews big names

Little-known authors Jo Wark, Tom Pitt and Singapore-born Pnin Ng are among the seven authors to make this year's Booker Prize shortlist. In a move likely to alienate a large number of big name writers the selection panel has chosen novels written by people with fewer than seven letters in their names.

"It was not a deliberate choice to exclude the bigger literary names," said Mo Bull, chair of the judges. "It just came out that way."

There was an immediate hostile reaction to the announcement from historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, who called the omission "untenably mononymically biased".

The furore will be welcomed by the bookmakers, who are making British debutant M.C. O a 6/1 early favourite with his semi-autobiographical novel "I'm-a Pop A Cap In Yo Ass, Muthafu*kah: My Year in Hip-Hop".

The Booker Prize has courted controversy in the past, notably in 2002 when the longlist consisted solely of serving lesbian Nigerian Army officers above the rank of lieutenant with double-barrelled names. The winner was Captain Chinua Achebe-Wilkinson with "A Thick Shell: My Year in Oilfield Protection".

That shortlist in full:

• Pnin Ng — The Odour Eaters
• M.C. O — I'm-a Pop A Cap In Yo Ass, Muthafu*kah: My Year in Hip-Hop
• Art Nye — The Unnecessity of Being
• Sam Dutt — Rock Hard Salad Tomato
• Tom Pitt — The Hairdresser's Remedy
• Kit Head — Stuff It: My Year in Taxidermy
• Jo Wark — A Small Fragile Thing

Previously

• Rushdie in 'Satanic Limericks' outrage
• Harry Potter to be made into book
• Fergie rages at Turner prize