In 2016, the Man Booker International Prize will merge with the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and will transition to an annual award recognizing a work translated into English. Previously (and in 2015), the International Prize has been awarded every two years for a body of work.
The £50,000 prize, open to novels and short story collections, will be divided equally between the author and the translator. Each shortlisted author and translator will receive £1,000.
"One of the persistent observations of Man Booker International Prize judges has been that a substantial body of important literary fiction has not been translated into English," said Jonathan Taylor, chair of the Booker Prize Foundation. "We very much hope that this reconfiguration of the prize will encourage a greater interest and investment in translation."
The longlist of 12 or 13 books will be revealed next March, followed by a shortlist of six in April, with the winner announced in May 2016.
Boyd Tonkin, senior writer on The Independent, who has been on the judging panel for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize since 2000, will chair the judges of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize. He will also join the Booker Prize Foundation Advisory Committee after serving his term as chair. Fiammetta Rocco will continue as administrator of the Man Booker International Prize.
