This year’s winner announcement of the 2020 International Booker Prize has been postponed until ‘late summer’, organisers say, to “ensure that readers are able to get hold of copies of the shortlisted books”.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the main reason for the delay of the announcement, which was scheduled to take place on May 19, as the pandemic has ‘severely’ disrupted book distribution.
In a statement, the Booker Prize Foundation says: “Steps are being taken to ensure that the authors, translators, publishers and book trade are best supported at this difficult time.”
The shortlist was announced in early April , with just six novels making the cut:
- The Enlightenment of The Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar (Farsi – Iran), with an anonymous translator
- The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (Spanish – Argentina), translated by Iona Macintyre and Fiona Mackintosh
- Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (German – Germany), translated by Ross Benjamin
- Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (Spanish – Mexico), translated by Sophie Hughes
- The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Japanese – Japan), translated by Stephen Snyder
- The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (Dutch – Netherlands), translated by Michele Hutchison
These novels are set to be re-promoted in the lead up to the revised winner announcement date.
Gaby Wood, Literary Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, says: “After careful consideration, we’ve decided on this course of action to ensure that the shortlist, and ultimately the winner, can be celebrated at a time when readership of these exceptional novels is made easier for everyone. As the world begins to recover, their contents will be found all the more rewarding for being, in effect, a form of travel.”
The International Booker Prize is awarded annually to a foreign novel translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. The winning author and translator split the £50,000 top prize, while each of the shortlisted authors and translators receive £1,000 apiece.
