Aida Edemariam and Olivette Otele are on the judging panel of the International Booker Prize 2021 announced on September 7, 2020.
The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom founded in 2004. Since 2016, the award has been given annually to a single book in English translation, with a £50,000 prize for the winning title, shared equally between author and translator.
The judging panel for the 2021 edition of the prize was announced on Monday with the chair being cultural historian and novelist, Lucy Hughes-Hallett. She leads a panel consisting of journalist and writer, Aida Edemariam; Man Booker-shortlisted novelist, Neel Mukherjee; Professor of the History of Slavery, Olivette Otele; and poet, translator, and biographer, George Szirtes.
This panel will be looking for the best work of translated fiction, selected from entries published in the UK or Ireland between 1 May 2020 and 30 April 2021.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Chair of the 2021 International Booker Prize judges, said: ‘Fiction is a way of escaping our own personal, national and ideological lockdowns, and of entering the minds of writers and fellow readers, regardless of where they come from. It is a great pleasure to be part of this generous, outward-looking prize, and to be working with such a distinguished group of judges. I look forward to discovering great writing, to being taken to places I’ve never seen, and to inhabiting mind-sets which will be new to me. I also look forward to rewarding the work of the authors and translators who help readers to live, imaginatively, the lives of our fellow humans everywhere.’
The ‘Booker Dozen’ of 12 or 13 books on the 2021 International Prize longlist will be announced in March 2020 and the shortlist of six books in April. The winners will be announced in May.
Leave a Reply