Booker Shortlist Sets Up a Fifth Two-Time Winner

AP reports Marlon James and Douglas Stuart could each become only the fifth author to win the Booker Prize twice when the 2026 winner is named Nov. 9.

According to the AP, via the Jackson Hole News&Guide, judges announced the six-book Booker Prize shortlist on Tuesday, cutting 13 semifinalists from an original field of 163 submissions. Former winners Marlon James, for *The Disappearers*, and Douglas Stuart, for *John of John*, both made the list — and either would become only the fifth author to win the prize twice.

The AP notes only four authors have ever won the Booker twice: J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood. James previously took the 2015 prize for *A Brief History of Seven Killings*, while Stuart won in 2020 for *Shuggie Bain*. The 2026 winner receives $67,000 and a trophy named Iris, after 1978 winner Iris Murdoch, with the announcement set for Nov. 9.

Per the AP report, James's *The Disappearers* follows a group of gay men in his native Jamaica during the hostile environment of the 1980s, while Stuart's *John of John* tells a story of father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island. They face Pulitzer laureate Elizabeth Strout's *The Things We Never Say*, Rebecca Perry's *May We Feed the King*, 81-year-old M. John Harrison's postapocalyptic *The End of Everything* — which would make him the oldest-ever winner — and Luke Kennard's campus novel *Black Bag*.

The shortlist lands as prize bodies elsewhere wrestle with credibility questions. CBC News reports that Canadian-Haitian novelist Thélyson Orélien, who won the Prix du roman Fnac on Monday and is shortlisted for the Académie Goncourt prize, faces allegations his debut *C'était ça ou mourir* was AI-written — which he denies — plus plagiarism claims La Presse uncovered and Radio-Canada's Décrypteurs verified. CBC says the Goncourt's president said Orélien would not be disqualified unless "irrefutable evidence" surfaced, while Éditions du Boréal suspended his press tour and the Salon du livre in the Eastern Townships dropped him as guest of honour.

Prizes are also rewriting translation records. Publishing Perspectives reports that Yáng Shuāng-zǐ's *Taiwan Travelogue*, translated by Lin King, became the first book originally written in Mandarin to win the International Booker Prize, after in 2024 becoming the first Taiwanese work to win a US National Book Award — with rights now sold or forthcoming in 30 territories, including a German edition on October 6.