Chinua Achebe Wins $120K Man Booker Fiction Prize

LONDON, June 13 -- Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction Wednesday, beating such celebrated nominees as Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan.

The $120,000 prize is awarded every two years for a body of fiction.

Achebe, 76, is best known for his first novel, "Things Fall Apart" (1958), and "Anthills of the Savannah," published more than 30 years later. "Things Fall Apart" has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time.

"Chinua Achebe's early work made him the father of modern African literature as an integral part of world literature," said Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, one of the three judges for the award.

Achebe, professor of languages and literature at Bard College, New York, will receive the prize on June 28 at a ceremony in Oxford.