European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced the three finalists for the 2026 EBRD Literature Prize, recognizing outstanding literary fiction translated into English from countries where the bank operates. The annual prize celebrates both authors and translators for bringing international literature to wider global audiences.
The finalists for this year’s award include Akram Aylisli from Azerbaijan for the novel People and Trees: A Trilogy, translated into English by Katherine E. Young. The book presents interconnected coming-of-age stories set in a mountain village during the Second World War and explores themes of hardship, family, and resilience through the perspective of a child narrator.
Another finalist is Jacek Dukaj from Poland for the novel Ice, translated from Polish by Ursula Phillips. The science-fiction epic combines alternative history, philosophical reflection, and political themes in a fictional world where the Russian Revolution never took place. The novel follows a complex journey across Siberia while blending elements of speculative fiction, historical imagination, and existential inquiry.
The third finalist is Shady Lewis from Egypt for On the Greenwich Line, translated from Arabic by Katharine Halls. The novel explores identity, migration, and bureaucracy through dark humour and satire, following an Egyptian narrator in Britain who becomes involved in the burial of a Syrian refugee while navigating cultural and political tensions.
The independent judging panel for the 2026 award is chaired by writer and critic Maya Jaggi and includes academic and author Lea Ypi, novelist Chigozie Obioma, and non-fiction writer Marek Kohn. The jury praised the finalists for their originality, literary quality, and the strength of their translations into English.
The winner of the EBRD Literature Prize 2026 will be announced on 2 July during a ceremony at the EBRD headquarters in London. The winning author and translator will share a €20,000 prize, while the remaining finalists will each receive €2,000.
Since its launch in 2018, the EBRD Literature Prize has aimed to promote literature from the regions where the bank invests while highlighting the important role of translators in making international literary works accessible to English-speaking readers.
