Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: International Booker Prize Longlist Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

The International Booker Prize is one of the best resources we have to sort through the best books in translation for English speaking audiences. There is a huge increase in the number of books being translated and this is definitely reflected in an increase in demand from patrons.

You can use my "translation" tag to find more places where books in translation are covered, but today I wanted to make sure the entire 13 book longlist of the International Booker Prize titles was made available here on the blog. More about the award from the main page:

Each year the International Booker Prize introduces readers to the best novels and short story collections from around the world that have been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.  

The prize recognises the vital work of translators with the £50,000 prize money divided equally: £25,000 for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators). In addition, there is a prize of £5,000 for each of the shortlisted titles: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).  

The 13 books on the longlist have been chosen by the 2024 judging panel: broadcaster and journalist Eleanor Wachtel, as chair; award-winning poet Natalie Diaz; internationally acclaimed novelist Romesh Gunesekera;  groundbreaking visual artist William Kentridge; and writer, editor and translator Aaron Robertson.  

Their selection was made from 149 books published between 1 May 2023 and 30 April 2024 and submitted by publishers – the highest number since the prize was relaunched in its current format in 2016. 2024’s submissions were made up of books originally written in 32 languages, up from 27 in 2023. Since 2016, books representing 63 languages have been submitted for the prize, ranging from Farsi and Vietnamese to Kikuyu and Welsh.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on 9 April 2024. The winning title will be announced at a ceremony on 21 May 2024, which will be livestreamed.

The titles as listed on that page are:

Longlist

• The Silver Bone
• Simpatía
• Not a River
• Undiscovered
• White Nights
• Mater 2-10
• What I'd Rather Not Think About
• Crooked Plow
• The House on Via Gemito
• Lost on Me
• A Dictator Calls
• Kairos
• The Details

Each link goes to a page with information about the book and the author.

I also loved this information included by the judges:

The longlist has been announced, featuring books that ‘emphasise our common humanity in a violent world’ 

• The judges’ selection features ‘books that speak of courage and kindness, of the vital importance of community, and of the effects of standing up to tyranny’, according to Fiammetta Rocco, Administrator of the International Booker Prize 
• A quarter of the list is written by South American authors, with books representing Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Venezuela 
• The longlisted books are translated from ten original languages: Albanian, Dutch, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish  
• While some authors and their books might be unfamiliar to English-speaking readers, many are considered to be their respective countries’ greatest living writers  
• A number of the books highlight the struggles of individuals and minorities in the face of oppression. History, both personal and national, weighs heavily on characters, whether as a result of the hangover of communism in eastern Europe, the legacy of slavery and land theft in Brazil, or the stultifying effect of military dictatorship in Korea 
• The inaugural winner of the prize in 2005, Ismail Kadare, makes the longlist. Nine authors and nine translators are longlisted for the first time 
• There are over 50 years between the youngest and oldest authors on the longlist, and one of the books was published in its original language more than 20 years ago 

This list along with links to more information about this year's judges, a full list of every book with authors and translators listed, and more is all available on the landing page. 

And of course, the backlist access is awesome. Visit The Booker Library, a page with access to all authors, books, prize year searchability, and even discussion guides. All in one place.

Please make sure you check out the books and consider adding them to your collections and integrating them into your displays and lists where they fit, and not just as books in translation all year long.