Mary Beard to chair Booker

Mary Beard will chair the 2026 Booker Prize judging panel, putting a classicist and broadcaster at the head of one of English-language fiction’s biggest awards. (thebookerprizes.com) The Booker Prize Foundation announced the panel in December 2025 as submissions opened for books published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between October 1, 2025, and September 30, 2026. The prize is open to writers of any nationality, as long as the work is long-form fiction written in English. (thebookerprizes.com) Beard will judge alongside poet Raymond Antrobus, musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker, journalist and editor Rebecca Liu, and novelist Patricia Lockwood, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021 for *No One Is Talking About This*. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2) The Booker’s timetable is already set: the longlist, known as the “Booker Dozen,” is due on July 28, 2026, the shortlist of six books will follow in September, and the winner will be named in November. The winning author gets £50,000, and each shortlisted author gets £2,500. (thebookerprizes.com) The appointment puts Beard in charge of a prize that has widened its reach over the past decade. Since a 2014 rule change, the Booker has accepted novels by writers of any nationality, provided they are written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2) Beard is best known as a Roman historian, television presenter and author of books including *SPQR* and *Emperor of Rome*, rather than as a novelist or professional book critic. The Booker Prize described her as a writer and broadcaster and published a statement from her calling fiction a force that can make readers “think differently about the world.” (thebookerprizes.com) (britannica.com) The Booker has often used mixed judging panels that combine novelists, critics, editors and public figures from outside fiction. Recent chairs have included artist Edmund de Waal for 2023, philosopher Esi Edugyan for 2025, and writer Roddy Doyle for 2024. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2) (thebookerprizes.com 3) For publishers, the panel announcement is the start of the annual Booker cycle as much as a personnel story. For readers, it sets up a 2026 prize run by judges drawn from classics, poetry, music, journalism and contemporary fiction, with Beard casting the deciding view from the chair. (thebookerprizes.com)