Man Booker International Prize Merges with Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Starting in 2016, the Man Booker International Prize will merge with the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, thus creating an annual “super-prize” rewarding both the writers and translators of foreign-language fiction. (The Man Booker International Prize was previously biennial, recognizing an author’s body of work published in English).

Novels as well as short story collections will be eligible. The prize money of £50,000 will be divided equally between the writer and the translator.

The last three winners of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize were Jenny Erpenbeck, Hassan Blasim, and Gerbrand Bakker. The last three winners of the Man Booker International Prize were László Krasznahorkai, Lydia Davis, and Philip Roth.

Publishers Weekly quotes Jonathan Taylor, Chair of the Booker Prize Foundation: “We very much hope that this reconfiguration of the prize will encourage a greater interest and investment in translation.”

All too often, magnificent works of literature are lost in translation. Hopefully, with the introduction of this new prize, works of translated fiction will be published more often and read more widely.