Introducing the 2025 International Booker Prize Shadow Panel!
The International Booker Prize 2025 longlist of 12 or 13 books will be announced on Tuesday, 25 February 2025 at 2pm (GMT), and the shortlist of six books on Tuesday, 8 April. The winning title will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern on Tuesday, 20 May. For those of us who joyously wait for this moment every year, there is much guessing and planning and fun to be had in our reading futures.
This year’s official panel of judges are certainly busy with their mountainous stacks of books, but so is our Shadow Panel who will also once again be joining in the (unofficial) judging with our own spin on the best of the eligible lot. This group has met and discussed and, should I say it, argued about the best in literature translated into English since 2012 when Stu brought together a group to shadow the IBP’s “spiritual predecessor,” the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Our group has changed from year to year, and we are without our devoted organizer Tony and the ever-thoughtful Meredith this year, but we push on with enough members from previous years to have created a through line in our efforts of which we are quietly proud.
What is it we do you ask? When the official judges drop their longlist, we spend the first day in a crazy acquisition tear trying to get our hands on all the titles. We have long benefited from the kindness of publishers who have helped us with the titles on the list not yet published. Then we attempt to read all 12 or 13 titles before the publication of the shortlist. Since most of us have read at least some of the titles, this is sometimes not as daunting as it seems. We are mostly successful in this regard but it all depends on the length of the window between the two lists. We read, we score, we discuss, and then we make our own shortlist which always differs from the official one. Our own list is the one from which we select a winner the day prior to the official announcement.
Our group this year is comprised of 8 veteran members. Would you like to meet everyone?
My name is Stuart Allen. I have been blogging at Winstonsdad blog for the last 16 years. I have reviewed 1400 books from over 100 countries. I started the original Shadow Jury when this was the old Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. I also started the #translationthurs on Twitter and now on Blue Sky. Outside books, I work for the NHS in a team stopping people with learning disabilities from ending up in hospital or losing their placements. I love world cinema and alternative music. I live with my wife in Sunny Derbyshire on the edge of the peak district.
David Hebblethwaite is a reader and reviewer originally from Yorkshire, UK. He writes about books at David's Book World, and is also on Goodreads, Instagram (@davidsworldofbooks) and Bluesky (@davidheb.bsky.social). The Shadow Panel was instrumental in developing his interest in translated fiction, and it has become a highlight of his reading year. There are always interesting books to read and illuminating discussions to be had.
Paul Fulcher (@fulcherpaul at X and BlueSky) is a Wimbledon, UK based fan of translated fiction, who is active on Goodreads, where he contributes to an International Booker readers group https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/305620. He is a Trustee of the Republic of Consciousness Foundation, which runs the Republic of Consciousness Prize (@prizeRofC), which rewards innovative fiction, including in translation, from small independent presses. His reviews can be found on his Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15419566.Paul_Fulcher
Oisin Harris (@literaryty), out of Canterbury in the UK, reviews books at the Literaryty blog. His poems have appeared in The Denver Quarterly, The Moth, The Exacting Clam, The Sublunary Review, and elsewhere. He works in IT & Library support at the University of Kent and was co-editor and contributor for The Publishing Post’s Books in Translation Team, where he created the Translator Spotlight series where prominent translators are interviewed to demystify the craft of translation. His work on Women in Translation was published in the 2020 research eBook of the Institute for Translation and Interpreting, entitled Translating Women: Activism in Action (edited by Olga Castro and Helen Vassallo).Frances Evangelista (@nonsuchbook on Twitter and BlueSky) works as an educator in Washington DC. She elected a career in teaching and librarianship because she assumed it would provide her with lots of reading time. This was an incorrect assumption. She reads widely across many topics and genres but especially enjoys literature in translation and this particular bit of shadowing fun each year. Her thoughts on books may be found in her social media accounts in small bits and then discussed in greater detail on the podcast she cohosts, One Bright Book. This is her eighth year as a shadow panelist for the International Booker Prize.
Vivek Tejuja (@vivekisms) is a book blogger and reviewer from India, based in Mumbai. He loves to read books in Indian languages and translated editions of languages around the world (well, essentially world fiction, if that’s a thing). He is a freelance writer, and blogs at The Hungry Reader. He is also the author of So Now You Know, a memoir of growing up gay in Mumbai in the 90s, published by Harper Collins India.Jeremy Koenig is a high-school English teacher outside Washington, DC. An ardent supporter of works in translation and small presses, he's thrilled to return for his third year reading with the generous folks on the shadow panel. Jeremy is also a long-distance runner, competitive crossword solver, and devoted fan of women's basketball.
Marina Sofia is a reviewer, writer and blogger, and a literary translator from Romanian and German into English. She has previously worked in a volunteer capacity as a marketing manager for Asymptote Literary Journal, international crime fiction reviewer for Crime Fiction Lover and committee member for Geneva Writers Group. She is also the co-founder of Corylus Books, publisher of translated crime fiction with a social edge.
Blog: https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress.com/
Publishing: https://corylusbooks.com/
Our plans are to use this spot to share information about the prize, our own writings, and to detail our journey to what we will deem the best book translated into English for this year. We hope you follow along and join in our conversation!