The new Folio Prize has announced an inaugural short list of eight writers, which is bound to cause some controversy. Five of the writers are from the US, one from Canada, one from England and one from Ireland. The prize was set up as something of a response to the Man Booker Prize, not least because the Man Booker excluded US writers. Now that the Man Booker does include US writers, it could be argued that the Folio Prize is somewhat redundant (though it does include a poet as well as six novelists and a short-story writer.) More to the point, this will confirm the worse fears of those who were opposed to the inclusion of US writers, such as Tim Parks and Philip Hensher. And the list did not even include The Goldfinch! So can we expect US writers to dominate the major UK-based prizes, now they have won the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction, will likely will win this one and should also win the Man Booker? I have only read one of the books on the short list and very good it was, too (US, of course), though I shall get round to the McBride. And good luck to her. She’ll need it.