Booker near-misses aim for Whitbread

JK Rowling: Fans are snapping up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Two authors who missed out in this year's Booker Prize have been included in the shortlist for the 2000 Whitbread Book Award.

But Harry Potter author JK Rowling has missed out on a nomination on the children's book list, after winning last year with Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.

One judge is reported by The Times as saying the book, currently breaking publishing records, "wasn't up to it".

Kazuo Ishiguro and Matthew Kneale were beaten to the Booker Prize last week by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood with her novel The Blind Assassin.

Kasuo Ishiguro: Veteran of award shortlists

They have been nominated for the best novel prize in this year's prestigious Whitbread Award, to be announced on 23 January.

Last year's winner was poet Seamus Heaney for his translation of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf.

Ishiguro, who won the prize in 1986 for his novel, The Artist of the Floating World, has been nominated for his latest work, When We Were Orphans.

Kneale made the short-list with his fourth novel, English Passengers.

The other writers to be nominated include Will Self for his book How The Dead Live, Jill Dawson for her novel Fred and Edie and Anne Enright for What Are You Like?

The judges said all the novels on the shortlist were outstanding.

One judge said: "The diversity of the novels submitted this year was intriguing and pleasing, and is reflected in the final shortlist of five, rather than four, very different novels."

Matthew Kneale: Novel about the wickedness of the British Empire

The winner in each of a number of Whitbread categories will receive £3,500.

Judges will then decide on the overall Book of the Year with the winner receiving a further £22,500.

Full shortlist:

Whitbread Novel Award:
Fred and Edie, by Jill Dawson
What Are You Like, by Anne Enright
When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro
How The Dead Live, by Will Self
English Passengers, by Matthew Kneale

Whitbread First Novel Award:
Under The Skin, by Michel Faber
Danny Boy, by Jo-Ann Goodwin
Born Free, by Laura Hird
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith

Whitbread Poetry Award:
The Asylum Dance, by John Burnside
Conjure, by Michael Donaghy
Collected Poems, by R F Langley
Granny Scarecrow, by Anne Stevenson
Floods, by Maurice Riordan

Whitbread Biography Award:
Fanny Burney, by Claire Harman
John Ruskin: The Later Years, by Tim Hilton
Hitler: 1936-45 Nemesis, by Ian Kershaw
Bad Blood: A Memoir, by Lorna Sage

Whitbread Children's Book Award:
Heaven Eyes, by David Almond
Arthur: The Seeing Stone, by Kevin Crossley-Holland
Troy, by Adele Geras
Coram Boy, by Jamilia Gavin