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International Booker Prize judges 2023
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Read our interviews with the International Booker Prize 2023 judges

We asked our five judges to describe their formative reading experiences - and to explain why reading fiction in translation matters

Publication date and time: Published February 13, 2023
Leïla Slimani

Leïla Slimani: 'I'm looking for emotion - to be surprised, shaken, haunted by a story'

The French-Moroccan novelist talks about her lifelong love of foreign literature - and why the International Booker Prize allows readers to interrogate both the past and the future

Uilleam Blacker

Uilleam Blacker: 'As English speakers, we need to learn cultural humility'

The author and translator talks about the island library that fostered his love of reading - and crossing borders through literature

Tan Twan Eng

Tan Twan Eng: 'Translated fiction forces readers to look outwards, to the world'

The Booker-shortlisted Malaysian novelist talks about being a voracious reader as a child - and why he is looking for novels that speak to both the head and the heart

Parul Sehgal

Parul Sehgal: 'Good books invent their own criteria'

The New Yorker writer talks about growing up in a house where fiction was contraband - and why the International Booker is the literary award with the widest scope

Frederick Studemann

Frederick Studemann: 'It is nice to be taken away from the familiar'

The FT’s literary editor talks about growing up surrounded by books - and reading outside the familiar

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