Delhi-based writer, editor and columnist Nilanjana S Roy has been named to the 2026 judging panel for the International Booker Prize. Chaired by author Natasha Brown, the 2026 jury of the prize includes writer, broadcaster and Oxford University professor of mathematics and for the public understanding of science, Marcus du Sautoy; International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes; writer, Lolwe editor and bookshop owner Troy Onyango.
The International Booker Prize recognizes the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator/s. Each shortlisted title is awarded a prize of £5,000—£2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator/s.
Apart from Roy, several Indian writers have served on the jury of the Booker Prizes, including Amit Chaudhuri (2009), Pankaj Mishra (2019), Jeet Thayil (2020), Sana Goyal (2025), and several other South Asian Writers.
Roy is the author of three critically-acclaimed novels – The Wildings (2012), The Hundred Names of Darkness (2013), and Black River (2022). She has published a collection of essays titled The Girl Who Ate Books (2016) about her love for reading. She has edited three anthologies – A Matter of Taste: The Penguin Book of Indian Writing on Food (2004), Patriots, Poets & Prisoners: Selections from Ramananda Chatterjee’s The Modern Review (2016), and Our Freedoms (2021).
With over two decades of experience as a columnist and literary critic, Roy has contributed to leading publications, including the Guardian, the New York Times, the Business Standard, Scroll, Outlook, the New York Review and the BBC. She writes a column on books for the Financial Times.
Nilanjana S Roy said on being in the jury for the coveted prize, “Younger readers are bolder, reading far more in translation than previous generations. If more readers discovered how wide the world really is, via the International Booker or by reading across multiple languages rather than a select few, they might have no room in their heads for narrow walls. Translations invite you to explore literature as a biodiverse forest rather than a tame monoculture.”
Previous winners
Kannada author and activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker Prize 2025 for the collection of short stories Heart Lamp, published in the UK by And Other Stories. In 2022, author Geetanjali Shree won the Prize for Tomb of Sand, the English translation of her Hindi novel Ret Samadhi, translated by Daisy Rockwell and published in the UK by Tilted Axis Press.
In 2026, the Booker Prize Foundation will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Booker Prize in its current form. The first winner in 2016 was The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith. Han went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.
A longlist of 12 or 13 books will be announced on 24 February 2026, with a shortlist of six books to follow on 31 March 2026. The winning book will be announced at a ceremony in May 2026.
