Arts : Two Up for the Booker Prize

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Byline: Ian Hill

TWO Northern Ireland born authors have been included in the so called "long list", for the prestigious Booker Prize.

For poet and essayist Ciaran Carson has been listed for his latest work the Belfast-based exploration of magical realism, 'Shamrock Tea', published by Granta Books.

Co Down-born Eoin MacNamee who made his name with a first novel about the Shankill Butchers, has made it with his latest controversial "faction", based on the Patricia Curran murder scandal, titled 'The Blue Tango', published by Faber and Faber.

A singer and a musician as well as a writer, Carson was born in 1948 and relates that he was brought up …