THE judges for the International Booker Prize 2023 have been announced. Chairing the panel of juries this year is the prize-winning French-Moroccan novelist, Leïla Slimani.
Acclaimed Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng will be part of the panel alongside Uilleam Blacker, one of Britain’s leading literary translators, Parul Sehgal, staff writer and critic at the New Yorker and Frederick Studemann, literary editor of the Financial Times.
In a brief statement posted on social media, Tan Twan Eng writes, “I'm honoured to be the first ever Malaysian author invited to join the panel of judges of the International Booker Prize. We're expecting to read submissions of approximately 150 novels translated from various languages into English and published in the UK.”
The jury will select from submitted entries of translated fiction published in the UK and Ireland between May 1 this year and April 30, 2023. A long list of 12 or 13 books will be unveiled in March, and the shortlist of six books will be announced in the following month with each one of the titles winning a £5,000 prize.
The award ceremony will then take place in May 2023. Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang, Malaysia, and grew up in Kuala Lumpur. He is of Straits Chinese descent and speaks English, Penang Hokkien, and Malay, as well as some Cantonese.
Prior to his success as a writer, he was a law graduate of University of London and an intellectual property lawyer. His debut novel, The Gift of Rain, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, and his second novel, The Garden of Evening Mists was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2012.
The Gift of Rain also won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction in 2013, as well as being shortlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize in 2014. The Garden of Evening Mists has been adapted into an award-winning film. His novels have been translated into more than 15 languages.
His highly-anticipated third novel, The House of Doors will be published in spring 2023.
Fiammeta Rocco, administrator of the International Booker Prize said the five-member jury brings “a wealth of talent and global experience as writers, critics, translators – and most of all as readers. Their choice of shortlisted novels should be the top of your must-read list.” – The Vibes, August 17, 2022
