Finalists announced Thursday at the Jaipur Literary Festival in India include Lydia Davis of the United States, Pakistan's Intizar Husain, France's Marie NDiaye and Indian writer U.R. Ananthamurthy.
Josip Novakovich of Canada, Russia's Vladimir Sorokin and Swiss writer Peter Stamm round out the list.
Previous winners of the 60,000-pound ($95,000) award include Canada's Alice Munro, Nigeria's Chinua Achebe and Philip Roth of the United States.
This year's winner will be announced in London on May 22.