Noted Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi and acclaimed Indian-origin novelist V S Naipaul have been named in the short-list for the 60,000 pounds Man Booker International Prize, which recognises the lifetime achievement of an author.

The Man Booker International Prize differs from the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction in that it highlights one writer’s continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.

The 14 writers short-listed come from 12 countries and seven are writers whose works are available in translation.

They are: Peter Carey (Australia), Evan S Connell (USA), Mahasweta Devi (India), E L Doctorow (USA), James Kelman (UK), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), Arnost Lustig (Czechoslovakia), Alice Munro (Canada), V S Naipaul (Trinidad/India), Joyce Carol Oates (USA), Antonio Tabucchi (Italy), Ngugi Wa Thiong’O (Kenya), Dubravka Ugresic (Croatia) and Ludmila Ulitskaya (Russia).

Judges for the Man Booker International Prize 2009, the third edition of the award, include noted Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri, Jane Smiley and Andrey Kurkov.

The two previous recipients of the honour are Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe and Albanian Ismail Kadare.