Max Porter to judge International Booker Prize

The International Booker Prize judging panel will be chaired by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter.

Porter will be joined by prize-winning poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi, writer and publishing director of Wasafiri Sana Goyal, author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur and award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton.

The judges will be looking for the best work of long-form fiction or collection of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1st May 2024 and 30th April 2025. Publishers are now invited to submit their books here.

The prize recognises the vital work of translators with the £50,000 prize money divided equally: £25,000 for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators). In addition, there is a prize of £5,000 for each of the shortlisted titles: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).

The International Booker Prize 2025 longlist of 12 or 13 books will be announced on 25th February 2025, and the shortlist of six books on 8th April 2025. The winning title will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern on 20th May 2025.

Porter said: “For the past 20 years, the International Booker has been the prize I’ve been most alert to, grateful for and interested in as a bookseller, editor, author and reader, so I’m thrilled to chair the panel of judges for 2025.

“Translation is a radical practice, ever more important and worthy of discussion in a polarised world where nuance is often stripped and arguments are corralled into simplistic and counter-productive gutters. The prize and its aims (and its crucial split of prize money between author and translator) is an exemplary, trusted, internationalist treasure of our cultural landscape.”

He added: “I also feel that the novel, now, far from being a form in peril, seems ever more relevant, adaptable, fluid and profound a vehicle for the movement of ideas between consciousnesses. I want to celebrate the complexities and joys of literature and start conversations with readers about what is happening when words, ideas, plots and characters migrate from one language to another.”

Fiammetta Rocco, administrator of the International Booker Prize, said: "The judging panel of the International Booker Prize 2025 is made up of a novelist, a poet, a translator, a critic and a songwriter, all of whom cross boundaries into other art forms.”