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18 July 2017

The judges for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize are announced today 18 July 2017, as submissions for the 2018 prize open.

Chaired by Lisa Appignanesi OBE, author and cultural commentator, the panel consists of: translator Michael Hofmann; novelist and essayist Hari Kunzru; critic Tim Martin; and novelist and short story writer Helen Oyeyemi.

2018 will be the third year of the evolved Man Booker International Prize, which was originally launched in 2005. The 2018 judging panel will be looking for the best work of translated fiction, selected from entries published in the UK between 1 May 2017 and 30 April 2018.

The 2017 prize was won by Israeli author, David Grossman, and his translator, Jessica Cohen, for A Horse Walks into a Bar. The £50,000 prize was split equally between author and translator. The paperback of A Horse Walks Into a Bar sold 20,000 copies in the three weeks following the winner announcement.

“This award is especially meaningful because it is an unparalleled recognition of translators,” Jessica Cohen said in her acceptance speech. “To me,” she added, “the Man Booker International Prize is about recognising works that break down walls and barriers, that fight against dehumanising other people or other peoples, and find the language to express the human experiences that we all share.”

Lisa Appignanesi, Chair of the judges for 2018, comments: “The Man Booker International is one of my great favourites amongst our panoply of prizes. I’m thrilled by the adventure of setting out to read the best of our fiction in translation - fiction that navigates foreign seas, charts different ways of life and other ways of seeing. Fiction, too, in which a conversation between writer and translator can be divined. I’m honoured to be chairing a panel of formidable writers, critics and translators and I’m anticipating our literary discussions with delight.”

Fiammetta Rocco, Administrator of the Man Booker International Prize, adds: “The judges of the 2018 Man Booker International prize are united by their love of the written word, by their curiosity about how the novel can transcend boundaries and by a deep appreciation for the creative work done by literary translators today.”

The “Man Booker Dozen” of 12 or 13 books will be announced in March 2018 and the shortlist of six books in April 2018. The winner will be announced in May 2018.

The prize is sponsored by Man Group, an active investment management firm that also sponsors the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. Both prizes strive to recognise and reward the finest in contemporary literature.

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