Indian-Origin Translator Padma Viswanathan Named In International Booker Prize 2026 Longlist

Last Updated:February 24, 2026, 22:33 IST

Padma Viswanathan is longlisted for International Booker Prize 2026 for translating Ana Paula Maia’s 'On Earth As It Is Beneath', novel set in a penal colony scarred by slavery.

Indian-origin Canadian-American writer and translator Padma Viswanathan was on Tuesday longlisted for the prestigious International Booker Prize 2026 for her English translation of Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia’s novel “On Earth As It Is Beneath".

The name was announced from a longlist of 13 books of translators vying for the £50,000 (approximately Rs 61 lakh) prize. The amount will be equally benefitted between the author Viswanathan has authored three novels, including the internationally bestselling “The Toss of a Lemon" (2008).

Each shortlisted title receives £5,000, also shared equally. The shortlist of six books will be announced on March 31 and the winner’s name will be revealed at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on May 19. The 2026 prize is supported by Bukhman Philanthropies.

The book “On Earth As It Is Beneath", published by Edinburgh-based Charco Press on August 12, 2025, is based on a remote penal colony built on land where enslaved people were once tortured and murdered.

The story begins in a place where punishment has replaced justice and cruelty has become the norm. As the colony nears its end, the warden introduces a ritualised full-moon hunt, releasing prisoners into the forest for sport.

The novel has been described by the International Booker Prize 2026 judging panel as “a stark, unsettling exploration of power, violence, destruction and institutional corruption that will linger with readers long after the final page".

The judges said: “Set in a remote penal colony built on land scarred by slavery and colonialism, this vivid and haunting novel unfolds in a landscape where punishment has replaced justice and cruelty has become the norm. As the colony nears its end, the warden introduces a ritualised full-moon hunt, releasing prisoners into the forest for sport."

“Through spare yet masterful prose, Ana Paula Maia renders a closed world thick with dread, brutality and moral decay. The prisoners and guards alike are trapped within a system that corrodes and suffocates everyone it touches. On Earth As It Is Beneath is a stark, unsettling exploration of power, violence, destruction and institutional corruption that will linger with readers long after the final page," they said.

Viswanathan’s novels have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and others. She has published short fiction, essays and translations in Granta, The Boston Review, BRICK, and elsewhere. Full-length translations include São Bernardo, by Brazilian novelist Graciliano Ramos and Where We Stand, by Djamila Ribeiro. Her most recent novel, The Charterhouse of Padma, was published in 2024.

She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville, where she is Founding Director of the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Program.

Her translation of São Bernardo by Brazilian literary giant Graciliano Ramos was published by New York Review Books in 2020.

Her debut novel, “The Toss of a Lemon", was inspired by her family history. It was based on three generations of a Brahmin family through 60 years of social and political change in South India. The book became a national bestseller in India.

Her second novel, “The Ever After of Ashwin Rao", was a finalist for the Giller Prize and her most recent work, “The Charterhouse of Padma" (2024), explores the lives of two South Asian professors. Her memoir, Like “Every Form of Love", was published in 2023.

Besides Viswanathan, the longlist include works from 14 nationalities, including Women Without Men by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh. Another book is Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.

News world Indian-Origin Translator Padma Viswanathan Named In International Booker Prize 2026 Longlist

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