International Booker Prize
いんたーなしょなるぶっかーしょう
An international literary prize awarded to fiction works translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. Since 2016, it has been awarded annually to a single work, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the author and translator.
- Established
- 2005
- Organizer
- Booker Prize Foundation
- Category
- Research, Translation, and Scholarship
- Selection Method
- Recommendation
- Target
- Professional
- Frequency
- 1 per year
- Application Deadline
- around March
- Announcement Period
- around May
- Status
- Active
Description
International literary prize established in 2005. From 2005–2015, it was awarded biennially to the body of work (career) of living writers, but the format was changed in 2016 to an annual award given each year to a single fiction work (including novels and short story collections) translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. The prize is £50,000 (in principle split between author and translator), and shortlisted authors and translators each receive £2,500. Organized by the Booker Prize Foundation, with support from Crankstart etc. since 2019. Aims to promote translated literature, increase translator visibility, and foster international literary exchange.
Prize
- Main Prize
- The winning work receives £50,000, which is divided equally between the author and translator in principle (each £25,000).
- Cash Prize
- 50,000 GBP
- Shortlisted authors and translators each receive £2,500
- From 2005–2015, biennially: £60,000 prize (for writer's achievements) and £15,000 translator prize
- Winning and nominated works gain increased international attention and sales promotion opportunities
Selection
Selection Process
| Stage | Judges | Pass Rate | Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| First selection (Longlist) | A panel of judges appointed each year selects (longlist typically 12–13 books, known as 'Booker Dozen') | — | Longlist announced on official website in March |
| Second selection (Shortlist) | The same judging panel selects 6 books for the shortlist from the longlist | — | Shortlist announced in April |
| Final selection (Winner) | Judging panel (typically 5 including chair) decides winner through discussion and voting | — | Winner announced in May (ceremony, official site, press) |
| 2005–2015 (old format) | Judges appointed biennially evaluated writer's achievements to decide winner | — | Winners announced biennially (e.g., 2005, 2007, …, 2015) |
Criteria
- Translated into English and published in UK or Ireland (main condition since 2016)
- Targets fiction (novels/short story collections)
- Emphasis on translation quality (literary completion) and original's literary merit
- Evaluation of work's originality, expressiveness, international contribution
- Primarily nomination-based entries by publishers etc.
Application Tips
Dos
- 翻訳の質にこだわり、原作の声を英語で忠実に再現する
- 英国またはアイルランドでの英語版出版を確認する（応募条件）
- 出版社を通じて正しいノミネーション手続きを踏む
- 編集・校閲を徹底し、訳者と緊密に連携する
Don''ts
- 未出版の英語訳や自己出版だけの英語版で応募しない（要件に合致しない場合がある）
- 翻訳の未校正・粗い訳文のまま提出しない
- ジャンルや出版要件を無視して応募しない
From Judges
- 翻訳の文学的完成度と原作の独自性を示すことが重要
- 短くても精緻な表現（brevity and precision）が高く評価されることがある
- 翻訳者の仕事も受賞評価に直接影響するため、訳の質と出版の仕上がりを重視する
Related Awards
- Booker Prize
- Franz Kafka Prize
- International Dublin Literary Award
- Man Asian Literary Prize
- National Book Award
- Neustadt International Prize for Literature
- Prix Goncourt
- Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
- List of literary awards
Official Resources
https://thebookerprizes.com/the-international-booker-prizePast Winners
A collection of twelve Kannada short stories that follows women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. It traces the frictions of family life, faith, caste, and patriarchy through dry humor and a vivid spoken style.
Twelve stories that render the lives of women in southern India with quiet anger and dark humor.
A novel centered on a daughter who returns to her mountain home and the mother who tries to protect her, as the memory of a past catastrophe and the wounds it left on the land slowly resurface. Family silence and local history are woven across generations.
Beneath a mother's and daughter's silence, the past buried in the mountain land begins to surface.
A satirical novel about a clinic that recreates past decades for patients and then spreads into a broader social and political longing for the past. The English translation won the 2023 International Booker Prize.
Tomb of Sand is a multivoiced novel centered on an elderly woman who begins a new life after her husband's death. It explores family history, Partition memory, and movement across borders with humor and formal experimentation.
A novel that expands old age and memory through humor and formal invention.
A compact, intense novel following Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier in the First World War, as grief and battlefield violence drive him toward psychological collapse. The English translation won the 2021 International Booker Prize.
‘De avond is ongemak’ van Marieke Lucas Rijneveld is het schrijnende verhaal van een gereformeerd boerengezin dat wordt getroffen door de dood van een kind.
‘De avond is ongemak’ van Marieke Lucas Rijneveld is het schrijnende verhaal van een gereformeerd boerengezin dat wordt getroffen door de dood van een kind.
An Omani family novel that traces women, marriage, and social change across generations.
An Omani family novel that traces women, marriage, and social change across generations.
A formally experimental novel made of fragments about travel, movement, the body, anatomy, and traces of the dead. Stories, essays, and anecdotes echo one another, revealing both the unease and the freedom of a human existence that refuses to stay fixed in one place.
Fragments of moving bodies and memories illuminate travel itself as a form of life.
スタンドアップ・コメディアンの一夜の公演を舞台にした長篇。笑いと怒り、告白と暴露が交錯する語りを通じて、個人的喪失とトラウマ、社会的傷を浮き彫りにし、ユーモアと悲劇が同居する構成で強い印象を残す作品である。
スタンドアップ・コメディアンの一夜の公演を舞台にした長篇。
A three-part novel about Yeong-hye, whose refusal to eat meat unsettles her family and exposes violence, desire, shame, and the limits of social understanding. The English translation won the 2016 International Booker Prize.
This award recognizes László Krasznahorkai's body of work rather than a single title. He is honored for a long career that uses long-form prose and allegorical force to pursue questions of modern society and existence.
An international prize awarded to a writer's body of work, not to a single title.
Alice Munro is honored for a body of short fiction that captures everyday feeling and human relationships with exactness and depth, expanding what the short story can do.
A lifetime achievement award for a master of the short story.
A lifetime honor recognizing a writer whose work helped establish modern African literature. His books confront colonialism and cultural identity and have shaped world literature.
A lifetime honor for a writer who helped establish African literature.
A lifetime honor for an Albanian writer known for fable-like narration and sharp historical insight. His work turns memories of dictatorship and power into allegories of modern history.
An Albanian writer known for fable-like narration and historical insight.