The International Booker Prize is a prestigious award that honours works of fiction translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. 

On Tuesday, 24 June 2025, the International Booker Prize, formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize, announced the judges for the 2026 International Booker Prize. The annual prize awards a £50,000 prize, divided equally between the winning author and translator (s). Additionally, the shortlisted titles are awarded a prize of £5,000, with £2,500 allocated to the author and £2,500 to the translator (s).  Previous judges have included: Max Porter, Caleb Femi, Elnathan John, and others.

Submissions for the prize are open to UK and Irish publishers between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026.  

Who are the Judges of the 2026 International Booker Prize?

The judges announced for the 2026 International Booker Prize are:

 

Natasha Brown, who is the Chair Judge of the prize, is an English novelist and author of Assembly, published in 2021 and Universality, published in 2025. The Guardian describes her as ‘one of the most intelligent voices writing today,’ while the Sunday Times calls her ‘a powerful new voice in British literature,’ according to the International Booker Prize website.

Marcus du Sautoy is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, and a Fellow of New College. Additionally, he has authored nine books, including the most recent, Blueprints: How Mathematics Shapes Creativity. He works extensively with a range of arts organisations, from The Royal Opera House to the Glastonbury Festival, bringing science alive for the public. 

Sophie Hughes, a literary translator from Spanish and Italian, is the most-nominated translator in the International Booker Prize’s 10-year history. She has translated the works of authors like Fernanda Melchor, Alia Trabucco Zerán and Enrique Vila-Matas. McSweeney’s, the Guardian, the Paris Review, the White Review, Frieze, and also the New York Times have published her translations and writing.

 

Read: How to Write Interesting Characters That Capture Readers

 

Troy Onyango is the founder of Lolwe Magazine and a Kenyan writer and editor based in London. He is also the owner of Lolwe Books, an indie Pan-African bookshop in both Kenya and the UK. He published his debut collection of short stories, For What Are Butterflies Without Their Wings, in 2022. Troy Onyango was also a finalist for the Caine Prize for African Writing and a nominee for the Pushcart Prize, and the winner of the inaugural Nyanza Annual Literary Festival Prize.

Nilanjana S. Roy is the author of two award-winning fantasy novels,  The Wildings and The Hundred Names of Darkness. With over two decades of experience as a columnist and literary critic, Roy has written for several notable publications, including The New York Times.

 

The Booker Prizes will announce a longlist of 12 or 13 books on Tuesday, 24 February 2026, followed by a shortlist of six titles on Tuesday, 31 March 2026. They will reveal the winning book at a ceremony in May 2026, which will be livestreamed on their social media channels.