Bukhman Philanthropies to fund next decade of the International Booker Prize as judges announced for the 2027 prize
The 2027 panel will be chaired by Katie Kitamura, who is joined by Patrick McGuinness, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Olga Ravn and Tessa Thompson as submissions are now open to publishers
The winner prize pot will double to £100k.
The Booker Prize Foundation is delighted to announce that the grant-giving organisation Bukhman Philanthropies has made a generous commitment to fund the next 10 years of the International Booker Prize, following its support of the prize in 2026. The announcement comes after the prize celebrated 10 years in its current form this year, in which time it has become the world’s most influential award for translated fiction.
In recognition of the decade-long partnership, the prize will be named the Bukhman International Booker Prize. As part of Bukhman Philanthropies’ dedication to celebrating and rewarding the vital art of translation, the prize fund for the winning title will double in value from £50,000 to £100,000, to be split equally between the author and translator/s. Each shortlisted title will continue to be awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator/s.
The judges for the Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027, also revealed today, are: critically acclaimed and Booker Prize-shortlisted author Katie Kitamura as Chair; Booker Prize-longlisted writer, translator and Professor of French and Comparative Literature Patrick McGuinness; filmmaker and Sunday Times bestselling author Caleb Azumah Nelson; celebrated writer, translator and International Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Olga Ravn; and award-winning film, television and stage actor and producer Tessa Thompson.
Since its inception in 2016, the International Booker Prize has celebrated outstanding writing from around the world, honoured 11 winners in 11 different languages and driven a significant increase in sales of translated fiction in the UK. Five authors recognised by the International Prize have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature: Annie Ernaux, Jon Fosse, Han Kang, Olga Tokarczuk and László Krasznahorkai.
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 2026 and 30 April 2027.
A longlist of 12 or 13 books will be announced on Tuesday, 16 March 2027 with a shortlist of six books to follow on Thursday, 15 April 2027. The winning book will be announced at a ceremony in May 2027, which will be livestreamed on the Booker Prizes social media channels.
Katie Kitamura, Chair of the 2027 prize judges, comments:
‘The International Booker Prize is a visionary prize, one that has consistently celebrated the best fiction from around the world. It has shaped me as a reader and a writer, introducing me to new books, authors, and schools of writing. As the prize marks its tenth anniversary and looks ahead to its next decade, I am honoured to be chairing this year’s panel of judges.
‘Translation represents a dialogue between two minds. The Bukhman International Booker Prize offers readers the opportunity to experience the profound encounter between author and translator. As a prize, it is exemplary in the way it recognises the work of both participants. The celebration and support of this intrinsically human collaboration feels particularly vital right now.
‘I feel especially fortunate to embark on this year of reading in the company of my fellow judges, artists and thinkers I have admired for many years. I am looking forward to learning with and from them, to having my mind changed, and to sharing in the thrill of discovery.’
Katie Kitamura, Chair of the Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027 judges
© Clayton CubittGaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, adds:
‘We are incredibly grateful to Bukhman Philanthropies for their extraordinary commitment in funding the next 10 years of the International Booker Prize, and to Daria Bukhman for her personal support for translated work. When we launched this incarnation of the prize a decade ago, we did so in the hope that more great work from other languages and cultures would reach anglophone readers. We hoped to join publishers, agents, scouts, booksellers and others in a global-thinking enterprise, and to become a collective force for good.
‘The results after 10 years have been hugely gratifying: in the UK, sales of translated fiction have risen by 31 per cent – driven largely by readers under the age of 35. Beyond the UK, the rights to the original editions of International Booker-nominated books have been sold in dozens of other territories as a result of the light shone on them by the prize. And the knock-on effect of an International Booker Prize win in the author’s home country has been exponential, with, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of copies of the original edition reprinted as a result. Though the prize is designed to reward an individual book, it often draws attention to an author more generally: we’re very proud that five International Booker Prize winners or nominees have gone on to win the Nobel Prize for their body of work.
‘As we look towards the next decade of the prize, we do so with a deep sense of responsibility and hope. Bukhman Philanthropies’ commitment has the power to reshape not only the future of the prize, but the landscape of literature itself—elevating writers and translators whose stories connect us more deeply to one another across cultures, borders, and experiences. At a time when the world feels increasingly divided, this gift represents something profoundly optimistic: an investment in understanding, in curiosity, and in the belief that great literature can help us imagine one another’s lives.
‘We could not have found a better group to lead the charge than this year’s judges. They are phenomenal: each of them has a rich background in collaboration, international enquiry and creative work, and they will, I’m sure, be all the more brilliant for thinking together under Katie’s aegis. I’m deeply excited to listen to their conversations.’
Bukhman Philanthropies is a grant-giving organisation that in addition to supporting literature focuses on charities working in neonatal and maternal health and mental health and wellbeing. For more information visit bukhmanphilanthropies.org.
Daria Bukhman, Co-Founder and Chair of Bukhman Philanthropies, says of the partnership:
‘Some of the books that deeply influenced me growing up were translated fiction. It was through these works that I first understood the world is larger than any single perspective. The International Booker Prize celebrates exactly this: the extraordinary act of carrying a story from one language into another, preserving its soul while giving it new life.
‘Supporting this prize over the next decade is deeply personal to me. In a world increasingly shaped by speed, distraction, and massive advancement in AI, translated fiction asks us to slow down, to listen, and to understand lives unlike our own. I am proud to partner with the Booker Prize Foundation in championing this vital art form for years to come.’
Bukhman Philanthropies is committing to providing funding of £1.4 million a year for the International Booker Prize, to enable the Booker Prize Foundation to engage more readers with the world’s best translated fiction and to support the translated fiction ecosystem over the next decade. The longlist, shortlist and winner, selected through a robust judging process, are celebrated through a programme of public events, an extensive digital, marketing and PR campaign, a red-carpet winner ceremony shared online with global audiences and through retail, library and community engagement to get the books in the hands of as many readers as possible.
With thanks to Bukhman Philanthropies’ support, the Booker Prize Foundation will be able to continue to gift 500 sets of each International Booker Prize shortlist to local communities through library authorities across the UK in partnership with The Reading Agency. The funding will also improve access to the nominated books through the Booker Prize Foundation and National Literacy Trust’s prison reading programme Books Unlocked and through the production of Braile and audio editions of the winning International Booker Prize books, made available to over 70,000 people with sight loss by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of Booker Prize Foundation, at the Booker Prize 2024 shortlist announcement, Somerset House, London
© David ParryCentral to the International Booker Prize is the recognition of the role that translators play in bringing great works of fiction from around the world to English-language readers. Over the next decade, Bukhman Philanthropies’ support for the prize will enable the development of initiatives that help translators to refine their craft, build meaningful connections, and bring a wider range of international works to new and younger audiences. These will include the continuation of the PEN Presents x International Booker Prize, a partnership between the prize and English PEN which aims to address the underrepresentation of translators from the Global Majority in UK publishing to help diversify the translated literature landscape.
Crankstart continues to fund the Booker Prize and the Booker Prize Foundation’s work as a whole. For more information on how the Booker Prize Foundation is funded see here.
About the judges
Katie Kitamura (Chair of the Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027) is the author of five novels. Audition was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and was one of President Obama’s Favourite Books of 2025. It was also a finalist for the Gotham Book Prize and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Carol Shields Prize. It is being adapted for film by director Lulu Wang, with Lucy Liu and Charles Melton starring.
Her novel Intimacies was one of the New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2021. It was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was one of President Obama’s Favourite Books of 2021. In France, it won the Prix Littéraire Lucien Barrière, was a finalist for the Grand Prix de l’Héroine, and was longlisted for the Prix Fragonard. A Separation (2017) was a finalist for the Premio von Rezzori and longlisted for the Prix Meilleur Roman Points; it was also a New York Times Notable Book. It is being adapted for film by director Jonas Carpignano.
Kitamura’s two previous novels, Gone to the Forest (2013) and The Longshot (2009), were both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. Kitamura is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize. She was the 2025 Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow at the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library, and has received fellowships from the Lannan, Santa Maddalena and Jan Michalski Foundations. Her work has been translated into 29 languages. She has written for publications including the New York Times, the Guardian, Harper’s Magazine, and Frieze, and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University.
Patrick McGuinness was born in Tunisia and brought up in the Belgian Ardennes. His first novel, The Last Hundred Days, about the fall of communism in Romania, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2011. His second novel, Throw Me to the Wolves, was published in 2019 and won the Encore Prize. He is also the author of three books of poetry, the most recent being Blood Feather (2023); a memoir, Other People’s Countries; a book about Oxford, the city behind the university (Real Oxford, 2021); and several books on French literature, including works on modern French theatre and on politics and poetry in fin de siècle France. His most recent book is Ghost Stations: Essays and Branchlines (2025).
McGuinness has translated from French (Stéphane Mallarmé, Hélène Dorion, Guillaume Apollinaire), Spanish (Jorge Manrique) and Catalan (Andreu Vidal). His recent translation, with Stephen Romer, of Gilles Ortlieb’s Selected Poems, won the 2025 Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation.
McGuinness is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Oxford University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and filmmaker, living in South-East London. His debut novel, Open Water, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller, won the Costa First Novel Award 2021 and Debut Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2022. It was longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize, shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2021 and selected as a Waterstones Paperback of the Month in 2022. Nelson’s second novel, Small Worlds, was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize. He was selected as a National Book Foundation ‘5 under 35’ honoree by Brit Bennett.
The TV adaption of Open Water, an eight-part series for which Nelson is the lead writer, director and executive producer, is currently in production and will air on BBC One in 2027. He is also working on an original feature, The Last Stop, with Heyday and Film4. His short film Pray, starring David Jonsson, premiered at Locarno Film Festival and has since been shown at numerous festivals, including London Film Festival.
The Bukhman International Booker Prize 2027 judges: Caleb Azumah Nelson, Olga Ravn, Katie Kitamura, Patrick McGuinness, Tessa Thompson.
Olga Ravn is one of Denmark’s most celebrated contemporary authors. In Danish, she has published four novels, two poetry collections and an artist’s book. Her novel The Employees, translated by Martin Aitken, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021 and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize, and longlisted for the National Book Award and the Dublin Literary Award. It has been published in 26 territories.
Her novel My Work won the Politiken’s Literature Prize in 2021 and led to changes in Denmark’s maternity laws. It was published in English in September 2023 to great critical acclaim in a translation by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell.
Ravn’s most recent novel, The Wax Child, was published in English in 2025 in a translation by Martin Aitken. It was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. The novel prompted the Telegraph to call her ‘the strangest – and best – young novelist in Europe’ and is being published in 20 territories.
As a translator, Ravn has translated Joan Didion and Sylvia Plath, among others, into Danish. As an editor she played a central role in the relaunch of Tove Ditlevesen’s work. In addition, she has written shorter pieces for the New Yorker, The Paris Review and Granta. She lives in Copenhagen.
Tessa Thompson is an award-winning actress with an extensive and diverse history of working across film, television and stage. In 2019, she featured on the cover of Time magazine as a ‘Next Generation Leader’. In 2020 she cemented her status as a formidable producer with the launch of her production company, Viva Maude.
Thompson has starred in a number of films and TV series adapted by or inspired by literature, including His & Hers, released on Netflix earlier this year and adapted from Alice Feeney’s novel of the same name; Nia DaCosta’s film Hedda, inspired by Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress; and Rebecca Hall’s film adaptation of Nella Larsen’s classic novel, Passing. All three were produced or executive produced by Thompson.
In April this year Thompson made her Broadway debut opposite Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13, written by Lindsey Ferrentino and directed by David Cromer. The play, based on a 2015 documentary, had its world premiere at the Donmar Warehouse in London and tells the true story of Nick Yarris, who spent more than two decades on death row before being exonerated by DNA evidence.
In 2017 Thompson originated the role of Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok opposite Chris Hemsworth. The Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, directed by Taika Waititi, grossed over $800 million worldwide. She reprised the role in the fourth Thor instalment five years later. She and Hemsworth collaborated again when she played Agent M in Men in Black: International. Thompson has also starred in all three instalments of the Creed trilogy, opposite Michael B Jordan, and as Charlotte Hale in the Emmy-nominated hit HBO drama series Westworld. Executive produced by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan, and inspired by writer-director Michael Crichton’s 1973 feature of the same name, the series garnered a total of 43 Emmy nominations from its first and second seasons combined.
Thompson’s numerous other notable performances include roles in Alex Garland’s Annihilation and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, the voicing of the titular character in Disney’s live-action re-imagining of Lady and the Tramp, and her portrait of civil rights activist Diane Nash in Ava Duvernay’s Oscar-nominated film Selma, produced by Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey.
Thompson is set to star in the upcoming suburban thriller series Next Door, created by Sam Boyd and A24 and due to air on Netflix. Her production company, Viva Maude, currently boasts a wide-ranging slate of over twenty feature films and television projects in various genres, encompassing narrative, documentary, and unscripted content. She and Viva Maude have joined as executive producers on Brittany Shyne’s documentary, Seeds, which won the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize in 2025. Seeds showcases a portrait of Black generational farmers in the American South, and has been selected for the shortlist for the 98th Annual Academy Awards.
Reflecting on 10 years of the International Booker Prize
Celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the prize this year included a readers’ poll to find the favourite winner from the past decade – with The Vegetarian, the inaugural winner in 2016, by Han Kang and translated from Korean by Deborah Smith, taking the top spot – and a one-off public event held at London’s Southbank Centre on Friday, 8 May. Global superstar and Service95 Book Club founder Dua Lipa gave a special introduction for the event, which brought together influential voices from the International Booker Prize’s history, from 2025 winning translator Deepa Bhasthi to 2021 winning author David Diop, to offer an immersive look at how exceptional translated fiction is created and championed. In her speech Dua Lipa said: ‘There really isn’t anything quite like a book to understand the perspective of others and translated fiction takes that even further. I guess it’s the fusion of an experience that is so universal and at the same time so unique. It’s the antidote to othering.’ You can watch her full speech here. The evening concluded with a reading of The Vegetarian by Sex Education, Bridgerton and Devil Wears Prada 2 actor Simone Ashley.
NielsenIQ BookData research commissioned by the Booker Prize Foundation, released in spring 2026 to mark the 10th anniversary of the prize, found that as the prize has grown in significance and popularity, sales of translated fiction have boomed among readers in the UK: 3.8m volumes of translated literature were sold in 2025, up more than 30% on 2016 – excluding graphic novels, comics and manga. The research also found that buyers of translated fiction in the UK skew younger, more male and more diverse than they did a decade ago, and significantly more so than buyers of general fiction (Nielsen’s umbrella term which includes all adult fiction bought for leisure in the UK).
Read an article with key findings from the research on the Booker Prizes website here.
The International Booker Prize’s global impact
The International Booker Prize continues to build in global importance each year – including in terms of digital audiences. The Booker Prize Foundation has created sets of short films featuring well-known actors performing extracts from the shortlisted books for its two annual prizes since 2022. The 2026 shortlist films and trailer – filmed at London’s Southbank Centre and featuring actors such as Toby Jones, Indira Varma and Toheeb Jimoh, costumed by Vivienne Westwood fashion house – were viewed over 65.7 million times on the Booker Prizes social channels in the run-up to the International Booker Prize 2026 ceremony, up 75% on last year’s films.
The winners of the prize can expect a worldwide readership and a significant increase in profile and sales – including in the author’s home country – as well as an uplift in translation rights deals.
The 2026 winner of the International Booker Prize supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, Taiwan Travelogue, written by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King – the first book by a Taiwanese author and a Taiwanese and American translator to win the prize, and the first translated from Taiwanese Mandarin – was announced at a ceremony at Tate Modern, London on Tuesday, 19 May 2026. The announcement was livestreamed on the Booker Prizes’ YouTube channel where it saw a 170% increase in views compared to the 2025 winner announcement and has been reported in over 2,413 pieces of media coverage across 86 countries to date. The book rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher And Other Stories immediately reprinting 16,800 copies, swiftly followed by an additional 20,000 copies at the beginning of June.
Prior to the winner announcement, And Other Stories reports it had sold 10,000 copies of Taiwan Travelogue across UK retailers; three weeks on from the announcement those sales increased to 49,000 copies. In Taiwan, the winner announcement had an immediate effect on sales. According to Spring Hill Publishing, which originally published the Taiwanese Mandarin edition of Taiwan Travelogue in March of 2020, it has printed over 110,000 copies since the winner announcement to meet the rapid increase in demand. Graywolf Press published the US edition of the English-language translation of Taiwan Travelogue in November 2024, which went on to win that year’s National Book Award for Translated Literature. Now in its 16th print run, Graywolf has reprinted 40,000 copies since the International Booker Prize winner announcement. Ahead of being longlisted for the prize in February 2026 translation rights to Taiwan Travelogue had been sold in 14 territories. Rights have now been sold in a total of 32 territories.
Publisher submissions
UK and Irish publishers are now invited to submit their books for the 2027 prize. Rules and submission guidelines are available here. Key deadlines are staggered between Thursday, 23 July 2026 and Thursday, 25 September 2026.
International Booker Prize trophy
© David Parry for the Booker Prize Foundation