3 Novelists Named as Contest Semifinalists

An American, a Canadian and an Austrian have been picked as semifinalists in the third annual Ritz Paris Hemingway Prize for English literature, officials said Thursday.

They are American author Peter Taylor for “A Summons to Memphis,” Canadian Margaret Atwood for “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Austrian novelist Peter Handke for “Across.”

Officials said the winner, to be announced April 6, will receive $50,000 for the best novel published in English in 1986.