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Submissions have opened today (Thursday 11th July) for the 2020 International Booker Prize, with a judging panel to be chaired by the Southbank Centre’s Ted Hodgkinson.
Alongside Hodgkinson, head of literature and spoken word at the London venue, judges for the £50,000 prize include comparative literature and translation specialist Lucie Campos, Man Booker International winning translator and writer Jennifer Croft, author Valeria Luiselli and Man Booker shortlisted Jeet Thayil.
The panel will be hunting for the best work of translated fiction, selected from entries published in the UK and Ireland between 1st May 2019 and 30th April 2020.
Hodgkinson said: “It's a great honour to chair the International Booker, a prize that recognises literature as an art rooted in dialogue, enabled by ingenuity and precision, but also by the courage of authors and translators alike to carry stories across languages and cultures. Through these miraculous and at times conspiratorial affinities we enter lives beyond our own and renew our shared sense of humanity. It's a particular thrill to be in such stellar company, with polyglot authors, celebrated translators and champions of translated fiction joining me on what promises to be a remarkable reading odyssey.”
The “Booker Dozen” of 12 or 13 books will be announced in March 2020 and the shortlist of six books in April. The winner will be announced in May.
This year’s prize was won by the Omani author Jokha Alharthi and translator Marilyn Booth for Celestial Bodies (Sandstone Press). The win led to a 30-fold sales increase for the book.