2020 International Booker Prize shortlist to be announced digitally on 2 April

The judges of The 2020 International Booker Prize are inviting readers, writers and the literary and translation community to the digital announcement of this year’s shortlist at 12 midday BST (4pm UAE time) on 2 April 2020.

The announcement will reveal the six shortlisted books in contention for the prize, which celebrates the finest translated fiction from around the world.

The digital shortlist announcement will be available on The Booker Prizes social channels, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and also on YouTube and The Booker Prizes website.

The shortlist will be chosen by a panel of five judges, chaired by Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature and Spoken Word at Southbank Centre.

The panel also includes: Lucie Campos, director of the Villa Gillet, France's centre for international writing; Man Booker International prize-winning translator and writer Jennifer Croft; Man Booker prize longlisted author Valeria Luiselli; and writer, poet and musician Jeet Thayil, whose novel Narcopolis was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2012.

The International Booker Prize is awarded every year for a single book that is translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland.

It aims to encourage more publishing and reading of quality fiction from all over the world and to promote the work of translators.

Both novels and short-story collections are eligible. The contribution of both author and translator is given equal recognition, with the £50,000 prize split between them.

Each shortlisted author and translator will receive £1,000, bringing the total value of the prize to £62,000.

This year the judges considered 124 books.

Together, the two Booker prizes reward the best fiction from around the globe that is published in English in the UK and Ireland. The Booker prizes are sponsored by Crankstart, a charitable foundation.