Indian-origin writer and translator Padma Viswanathan has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 for her English translation of Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia’s novel On Earth As It Is Beneath.
The six-book shortlist was selected by a judging panel chaired by award-winning author Natasha Brown and includes Indian novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy. The prize, awarded annually for fiction translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, carries a £50,000 award to be shared equally between author and translator. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on May 19.
Viswanathan’s shortlisted work is described as a horror novella set in a remote penal colony, where inmates are released into the wilderness during every full moon only to be hunted down.
In an interview, Viswanathan credited Lakshmi Holmström’s anthology The Inner Courtyard as an early influence. She also referenced Salman Rushdie as a literary inspiration.
The shortlist highlights strong female representation, with five of six authors and four of six translators being women.
