2026 International Booker Prize: Meet the Winners

Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, a Japanese novelist in 1930s Taiwan falls for the interpreter hired to guide her. Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lin King, disguises itself as a rediscovered text within a text, weaving together queer desire, postcolonial critique, hilarious dialogue, and sumptuous food writing.
 
In May this year, the novel won 2026’s International Booker Prize (supported by Bukhman Philanthropies): the world’s most influential award for translated fiction, championing literature from around the world and fostering an engaged global community of writers and readers whose experiences transcend national borders. The award brings international attention to both the author and translator with the prize divided equally between them.
 
Join us today as Emeritus Director Fiammetta Rocco speaks to both author and translator, Yáng and King, about appetite and longing, translation and history, and the politics of our most intimate encounters.