Margaret Atwood

The special copy of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale was auctioned by Sotheby's on Tuesday. Proceeds will help PEN America in its efforts to oppose book banning.

Atwood made the list for her sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, and Rushdie for his reimagining of Don Quixote. Chigozie Obioma, Elif Shafak, Lucy Ellmann and Bernardine Evaristo round out the finalists.

Atwood said that she was inspired by readers' questions about the dystopian world of Gilead — and, she says, by "the world we've been living in." It's set to be released next September.

The authors — who won awards in the fiction and nonfiction categories, respectively — were just two of the writers who emerged Thursday with one of the literary world's most renowned prizes.