The Booker Prize Foundation has announced that from 2016 the Man Booker International Prize (http://www NULL.themanbookerprize NULL.com/) will evolve, to encourage more publishing and reading of quality fiction in translation. From next year the prize, which will join forces with the current Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (http://www NULL.independent NULL.co NULL.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/independent-foreign-fiction-prize-delightful-discoveries-in-foreign-fiction-prize-10101847 NULL.html), will be awarded annually on the basis of a single book translated into English and published in the UK rather than every two years for a body of work, as has been the case until now. The move is designed to highlight the importance of translated fiction, with eight out of ten of the finalists for the award having been originally published in a language other than English.

As a further acknowledgement of the importance of translation, the £50,000 prize will be divided equally between author and translator. Each shortlisted author and translator will receive £1,000, bringing the total prize fund to £62,000. Judges will select a longlist of 12 or 13 books in March, followed by a shortlist of six in April, with the winner announced in May 2016.

Jonathan Taylor, Chair of the Booker Prize Foundation, commented: ‘The new Man Booker International Prize will complement the Man Booker Prize for Fiction by ensuring that all novels published in English in the UK are eligible for one or other of the prizes. Thereby we will encourage the recognition, reward and readership of fiction of the highest quality from all over the world.’