American writer Lydia Davis has won this year’s Man Booker International Prize for her innovative and influential writing.

The winner of the Prize was announced at the awards ceremony at Victoria the Albert Museum in London last night.

A professor of creative writing at the University of Albany, Ms. Davis is also an accomplished translator. She is widely praised for her “imaginative’’ narrative.

Her works include ‘The End of the Story’ and ‘Varieties of Disturbance’.

Well-known Kannada author UR Ananthamurthy, the only Indian to be shortlisted for the prestigious award, lost to the New York based writer for the 60,000 pound prize.

Other contenders were: Aharon Appelfeld (Israel), Yan Lianke (China), Marie Ndiaye (France), Josip Novakovich (Canada), Marilynne Robinson (U.S.), Vladimir Sorokin (Russia) and Peter Stamm (Switzerland).

Man Booker Prize recognises a writer for his or her continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.