A shortlist has been revealed for the 2026 International Booker Prize, which recognizes the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland. The winning book will be named May 19 in London. This year's prize is supported by Bukhman Philanthropies.
The contribution of author and translator is given equal recognition, with the £50,000 (about $66,040) prize divided equally between them. Each shortlisted title receives £5,000 (about $6,605). The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlisted titles are:
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King
The Witch by Marie Ndiaye, translated by Jordan Stump
On Earth as It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin
Chair of the judges Natasha Brown said: "Our shortlist offers readers a six-stop tour of highlights from the world of translated fiction. With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there's heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energizing. Re-reading each book, we judges found hope, insight and burning humanity--along with unforgettable characters to whom I'm sure readers will return again and again. Make space on your TBRs; this is an unmissable reading list."
Booker Prize Foundation CEO Gaby Wood commented: "This year, 2026, marks the 10th anniversary of the International Booker Prize in its current form. In each of those years it has reminded us of the way translated fiction allows us to travel through stories, unbound by geographical borders. This year's shortlist, selected with great care by our stellar panel of judges, does that particularly well."
---
The winner of The Story Prize for books published in 2025 is André Alexis for Other Worlds (FSG Originals). He receives $20,000. The other finalists were Lydia Millet for Atavists (W.W. Norton) and Ayşegül Savaş for Long Distance (Bloomsbury Books). They each receive $5,000.
The judges cited Other Worlds for "the playfulness, elegance, and originality of its stories... Other Worlds so seamlessly traverses the boundaries of time, of nationality, and of genre that such boundaries seem diaphanous. This fleet-footed collection is both rooted in oral and literary traditions and yet entirely contemporary. Being many things at once, full of sly innovations, and quietly upending conventions, Other Worlds is wholly original and wholly itself."
Alexis was born in Trinidad and grew up in Canada. His novel Fifteen Dogs won the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. He is also the recipient of the Windham-Campbell prize in fiction. His debut novel, Childhood, won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize and the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His other books include Pastoral, Asylum, Beauty and Sadness, Ingrid & the Wolf, Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa, and Lambton, Kent and Other Vistas: A Play.