LONDON — In an unexpected union of mass-market digital entertainment and highbrow literature, the International Booker Prize has secured its financial future for the next decade. The Booker Prize Foundation announced that Bukhman Philanthropies, the charitable foundation established by mobile gaming billionaire Dmitry Bukhman and his wife, Daria, has signed a landmark 10-year funding agreement to back the world’s most prestigious award for translated fiction.
Under the terms of the historic partnership, the award will be officially renamed the Bukhman International Booker Prize starting with the 2027 cycle. The foundation will inject £1.4 million annually into the prize, a move that will instantly double the financial purse for the winning book from £50,000 to £100,000—solidifying its position as one of the most lucrative literary awards on the globe.
Bridging the Value Gap for Translators
As has been tradition since the prize was overhauled in 2016, the newly doubled £100,000 purse will be split exactly down the middle: £50,000 to the author and £50,000 to the translator (or translators).
Daria Bukhman, co-founder and chair of Bukhman Philanthropies, explained that matching the prize money to the original English-language Booker Prize was a deliberate choice to elevate the status of translators.
”We wanted to double the overall prize pot because we felt it was fair for the author and translator of a translated work of fiction to each get the same prize money as the author of an English-language work would get through the Booker Prize,” she stated.
For a translation sector currently battling severe cost pressures, shrinking publisher budgets, and the long-term disruptive threats of generative AI, the massive cash infusion provides a critical layer of structural stability.
From ‘Homescapes’ to Hardbacks
The source of the funding marks a fascinating cultural crossover. Dmitry Bukhman, whose net worth is estimated at $13.6 billion, built his fortune alongside his older brother, Igor, by founding Playrix in 2004. The mobile gaming giant is responsible for some of the most ubiquitous casual smartphone games in the world, including Homescapes, Gardenscapes, and Township.
While Dmitry generated his wealth through screen-based microtransactions, Daria noted that the decision to fund global literature stems from a deeply personal place. Growing up in provincial northwestern Russia, she recalled that translated fiction served as her personal “window on to the world.”
- The Vision: The Bukhmans view the 10-year commitment as an antidote to the modern digital landscape. “In a world increasingly shaped by speed, distraction, and massive advancement in AI, translated fiction asks us to slow down, to listen, and to understand lives unlike our own,” Daria emphasized.
- The Breadth: Beyond the marquee prize money, the £1.4 million annual grant will fund the Booker Prize Foundation’s wider reading initiatives. This includes a program with The Reading Agency to gift 500 sets of the shortlisted books to local public libraries across the United Kingdom.
A New Era Begins
The Booker Prize Foundation’s chief executive, Gaby Wood, hailed the agreement as a transformative milestone that has the power to “reshape the landscape of literature itself.” The transition marks the latest chapter for an award that has frequently evolved its financial backing, having previously been sponsored by the Man Group and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Michael Moritz’s Crankstart foundation.
The first official Bukhman International Booker Prize ceremony will take place in May 2027. Submissions for eligible long-form fiction or short story collections—translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland—officially opened on July 2.
The foundation also revealed that the 2027 judging panel will be chaired by Booker-shortlisted author Katie Kitamura, alongside a star-studded jury including filmmaker Caleb Azumah Nelson, actress Tessa Thompson, poet Olga Ravn, and Oxford professor Patrick McGuinness.
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