Philip Pullman has made it onto the finalist list of the Man Booker International Prize. The list was presented at a press conference at the University of Sydney on the 30th of March.

The judges of this year’s Man Booker International are, writer, academic and rare-book dealer Dr. Rick Gekoski, publisher, writer and critic Carmen Callil, and award-winning novelist Justin Cartwright.

When he announced the list, the judges’ chair Dr. Gekoski said, “The 2011 List of Finalists honours thirteen great writers from around the world. It is, we think, diverse, fresh and thought-provoking, and serves to remind us anew of the importance of fiction in defining both ourselves and the world in which we live. Each of these writers is a delight, and any of them would make a worthy winner.”