International Booker Prize to reveal shortlist digitally

The International Booker prize is the latest award to announce it is going digital in 2020 in wake of the coronavirus crisis. Celebrating "the finest translated fiction from around the world", the prize will reveal 2020's shortlist digitally at noon (BST) on 2nd April through a host of social media platforms.

The award, which sees £50,000 split evenly between writer and translator of the winning book, will now announce its six shortlisted contenders via The Booker Prizes' social channels, including Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on YouTube and The Booker Prizes' website. Each shortlisted author and translator will receive £1,000, bringing the total value of the prize to £62,000. 

The 13-strong longlist for the prize was unveiled last month, showcasing the expertise of many independent presses including Oneworld, Fitzcarraldo Editions, Pushkin Press, Charco Press and Europa.

Whittling the nominations down to six books will be a panel of five judges, chaired by Ted Hodgkinson, head of literature and the spoken word at Southbank Centre, and also comprising: Lucie Campos, director of the Villa Gillet, France's centre for international writing; Man Booker International prize-winning translator and writer Jennifer Croft; this year's Rathbones Folio Prize winner, Valeria Luiselli; and writer, poet and musician Jeet Thayil, whose novel Narcopolis was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2012. 

This year the judges considered 124 books and the Booker Prizes are sponsored by charitable foundation Crankstart.