SOUTH African author, poet and university professor Marlene van Niekerk said on Wednesday that being nominated for this year’s Man Booker Prize was "not on my furthest horizon".Nominations for the £60,000 prize were announced at the University of Cape Town on Tuesday. The prize winner is to be announced at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum on May 19."This is a complete surprise. It was not on my furthest horizon. It is an affirmation of what one does and it is wonderful to be included in a list that gives such prominence to the global south," Prof van Niekerk, who is a professor in Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University, said.There are four African authors on the list of 10 nominations for 2015: Van Niekerk, Mia Couto (Mozambique), Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya) and Alain Mabanckou (Democratic Republic of Congo).Previous winners for the prize, for which no submissions are accepted, include Nigerian Chinua Achebe (2007), American Philip Roth (2011) and Canadian Alice Munro.Last year...
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