The End of the Russian Booker?

According to Nikolaus von Twickel in the Moscow Times, "preparations for this year's Russian Booker Prize have been postponed indefinitely because no new sponsor has been found."

The contract with previous sponsor, BP, expired after the 2010 award and apparently they have no plans to renew.

Previous winners include Ludmilla Ulitskaya (see Absinthe #3), Vasily Aksyonov, and Olga Slavnikova. 

Hopefully a sponsor will be found this year for the awarding of the 20th prize and hopefully the new sponsor will include information in English on the Russian Booker's website to help bring more attention to the award.

Finlandia Prize and Russian Booker

Some recent prize news:

Writer Sofi Oksanen has won this year's Finlandia Prize for literature for her novel Puhdistus ("Cleansing").

Additionally, the Russian Booker has been awarded to the writer Mikhail Yelizarov for his novel Библиотекарь ("Librarian").