Man Booker International Prize '07

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Apr 13 (Reuters) Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood are among 15 authors selected as finalists for the 2007 Man Booker International Prize, the award's organizers said.

The 60,000-pound (118,000 dollar) award is presented every two years to highlight a living writer's continued contribution to fiction on the world stage. The inaugural prize was awarded in 2005 to Ismail Kadare.

It differs from the prestigious Man Booker Prize because it is available to fiction writers of any nationality so long as their work was written in or translated into English.

The 2007 nominees announced in Toronto also include John Banville, Peter Carey, Don DeLillo, Carlos Fuentes, Doris Lessing, Ian McEwan, Harry Mulisch, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Amos Oz, Philip Roth and Michel Tournier.

The panel of judges is chaired by US literary critic Elaine Showalter and includes writers Nadine Gordimer of South Africa and Colm Toibin of Ireland.

The winner will be announced in early June.