Meet the judges for the International Booker Prize 2026
The panel for next year’s International Booker Prize will be chaired by award-winning author Natasha Brown, who is joined by Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Hughes, Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S. Roy
The 2026 judging panel for the International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction, is announced today (Tuesday, 24 June 2025), as submissions open to UK and Irish publishers.
Critically-acclaimed author Natasha Brown, one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, will chair the judging panel, which also includes:
Writer, broadcaster and mathematics professor Marcus du Sautoy
International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes
Writer, editor and bookshop owner Troy Onyango
Award-winning novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy
This year’s judges are looking for the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026.
In 2026, the Booker Prize Foundation will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the prize in its current form. The first winner, in 2016, was The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith. Han went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.
The International Booker Prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator/s. Each shortlisted title is awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator/s. In championing works from around the world that have originated in a wide range of languages, the prize fosters an engaged global community of writers and readers whose experiences and interests transcend national borders.
A longlist of 12 or 13 books will be announced on Tuesday, 24 February 2026, with a shortlist of six books to follow on Tuesday, 31 March 2026. The winning book will be announced at a ceremony next May.
Natasha Brown, Chair of the International Booker Prize 2026 judges, says:
‘Fiction in translation allows us to reach past borders and language barriers to encounter new stories, experiences and ideas. Over the years, the International Booker Prize’s shortlists, longlists and winners have amounted to an impressively varied (and consistently impressive) collection of literature. As a reader, this prize has broadened my literary horizons and introduced me to some of my all-time favourite books — so it’s an enormous honour and privilege to chair this year’s judging panel.
‘During our first meeting, one of my fellow judges described the coming months of reading together as a quest. I think that’s a perfect description. We’re about to embark on an epic journey across the world’s fiction, travelling paths forged by the magic of translation. I can’t wait to share the treasures we discover with readers.’
Fiammetta Rocco, Administrator of the International Booker Prize, adds:
‘As we head into the 10th anniversary year for the International Booker Prize in its current form, we have an exceptionally well-read, well-travelled, thoughtful and attentive panel of judges, who bring a thrilling range of expertise on literature and creativity to the task of selecting the best translated fiction of the year.
‘In Natasha Brown, who has been fêted as a literary star of our times, the panel has a Chair who brings experience from both sides of the literary prize process – as a previous judge and as an award-recipient. And with a decade in the financial industry under her belt she will bring a mathematician’s order as she leads a highly-esteemed panel of judges with an internationalist outlook, including a professor who has written about how maths shapes creativity, an editor, writer and bookseller specialising in Pan-African literature, an award-winning novelist and Financial Times columnist from India, and the most nominated translator in International Booker Prize history, who works from Spanish and Italian. I can’t wait to see the selection of books that results from their creative chemistry and collective taste.’
Entering the International Booker Prize 2026
UK and Irish publishers are now invited to submit their books for the 2026 prize. You’ll find the rules, eligibility criteria and submission guidelines on our website. Key deadlines are staggered between Thursday, 24 July 2025 and Thursday, 23 October 2025.
Celebrating 10 years of the International Booker Prize
In 2026, it will be 10 years since the first winner of the International Booker Prize, in its current form, was announced.
The prize began life in 2005 as the Man Booker International Prize. It was initially a biennial prize for a body of work, and there was no stipulation that the work should be written in a language other than English. The winners were Ismail Kadare, Chinua Achebe, Alice Munro, Philip Roth, Lydia Davis and László Krasznahorkai.
In 2015, after the rules of the original Booker Prize expanded to allow writers of any nationality to enter – as long as their books were written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland – the International Booker Prize evolved to become the mirror image of the English-language prize. Since then it has been awarded annually for a single work of fiction – either a novel or a collection of short stories – written in another language and translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
Along with The Vegetarian (2016), other winners have included Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Jennifer Croft (2018), The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld, translated from Dutch by Michele Hutchison (2020), At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop, translated from French by Anna Moschovakis (2021), and Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from German by Michael Hofmann (2024).
Great 👏👏👏 Happy to see Nilanjana Roy and Natasha Brown in the panel. All the best 💐📚💐
Hope to finish my pile of to-read novels before the long list is announced.