International Booker notes
The International Booker Prize will announce its 2026 winner on May 8, and one concrete shortlist note is that Jordan Stump’s English translation of Marie NDiaye’s The Witch has been shortlisted. ( ). The prize discussion is also being amplified by cultural figures such as Dua Lipa, who has been connected publicly with the prize and book‑club activity. (mirror.co.uk)
The 2026 International Booker Prize winner will be announced on May 19, and Marie NDiaye’s *The Witch*, translated by Jordan Stump, is one of six shortlisted books. (thebookerprizes.com) The Booker Prize Foundation says the award honors a single work of long-form fiction or a short-story collection translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. Each shortlisted title receives £5,000, split equally between author and translator. (thebookerprizes.com) *The Witch* was written in French by Marie NDiaye and translated into English by Jordan Stump, a French professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The Booker site describes the novel as the story of Lucie, “a mediocre witch” trying to pass on her gifts to twin daughters whose powers exceed her own. (thebookerprizes.com) (news.unl.edu) The six-book shortlist was announced on March 31, with chair of judges Natasha Brown calling the selection “energising and unmissable.” The Booker Foundation said the finalists span stories set across the past century and across multiple languages and regions. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2) This year is the 10th anniversary of the prize in its current form, with the award recognizing both author and translator equally for the winning book. Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said the anniversary has underscored how translated fiction lets readers move through stories beyond national borders. (thebookerprizes.com) (lithub.com) Coverage of the shortlist has also widened beyond literary pages. Service95, the media platform founded by Dua Lipa, published a 2024 interview in which she said she did not want to read everything “from a Western lens” and spoke in support of translated fiction as the International Booker race drew attention. (service95.com) British media have also tied Lipa to this year’s Booker activity through her book-club profile and a planned anniversary event in London on May 8. A separate winner’s ceremony is scheduled for May 19 at Tate Modern. (britbrief.co.uk) (thebookerprizes.com) For now, the clearest shortlist note is that *The Witch* is still in contention, with NDiaye and Stump sharing the nomination as the prize moves toward its May 19 decision. (thebookerprizes.com)
