2014 Man Booker Longlist Nominees Are...

13 authors just woke up to very fantastic news. The 2014 Man Booker Prize longlist was released Wednesday morning, and it's an interesting mix of authors from across the globe — which is fitting, as this is the first time the award has been open to novels from all locations as long as they're initially written in English. Until last year, the prize was open to only novelists from Britain, the Commonwealth, Ireland, and Zimbabwe.

2013's Man Booker Prize winner, Eleanor Catton (her ceremony is pictured up top), was happy to see the literary award opened up to more authors. On the Man Booker Prize website, she said, "I think it's a really great thing that finally we've got a prize that is an English-language prize that doesn't make a distinction for writers who are writing from a particular country."

As the New York Times points out, four Americans landed on the list — Karen Joy Fowler (whose nominated We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves already snagged her the PEN/Faulkner), Joshua Ferris, Siri Hustvedt, and Richard Powers — and, including Fowler and Hustvedt, three women were recognized (yes, I would have liked to see a little more representation there, too.)

Notably absent: Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goldfinch. Things that make you go hmmm.

Here's the full list:

• Joshua Ferris (USA) - To Rise Again at a Decent Hour (Viking)
• Richard Flanagan (Australia) - The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Chatto & Windus)
• Karen Joy Fowler (USA) - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Serpent's Tail)
• Siri Hustvedt (USA) - The Blazing World (Sceptre)
• Howard Jacobson (Britain) - J (Jonathan Cape)
• Paul Kingsnorth (Britian) - The Wake (Unbound)
• David Mitchell (Britain) - The Bone Clocks (Sceptre)
• Neel Mukherjee (Britain) - The Lives of Others (Chatto & Windus)
• David Nicholls (Britain) - Us (Hodder & Stoughton)
• Joseph O'Neill (Ireland/USA) - The Dog (Fourth Estate)
• Richard Powers (USA) - Orfeo (Atlantic Books)
• Ali Smith (Britain) - How to be Both (Hamish Hamilton)
• Niall Williams (Ireland) - History of the Rain (Bloomsbury)

The winner, who'll be decided upon by six judges and announced around mid-October, will take home £50,000.