The list included three Americans - Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates and Evan. S. Connell, author of the novels "Mr. Bridge" and "Mrs. Bridge." Naipaul is a native of Trinidad who lives in England.
The prize is worth around $85,000 and the winner will be announced in May.
Also cited were Australia's Peter Carey, Mahasweta Devi of Bangladesh, Scottish author James Kelman, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, Arnost Lustig of Czechoslovakia, Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, Italy's Antonio Tabucchi, Kenyan Ngugi Wa Thiong'O, Dubravka Ugresic of Croatia and Ludmila Ulitskaya of Russia.
Previous winners of the prize, founded in 2004, are Ismail Kadare of Albania and Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.
