Jury Announced for the 2026 Neustadt Prize

World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, has announced the names of the jurors who will select the finalists for the 2026 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. 

That jury is composed of the following nine members:

Threa Almontaser
Maya Arad
Polina Barskova
Victoria Chang
Elisabeth Jaquette
Beena Kamlani
Shereen Malherbe
Iheoma Nwachukwu
Alejandro Puyana

The jurors’ bios can be found on the Neustadt Prize website.

This prestigious prize is awarded to a living writer from anywhere in any genre. It recognizes great accomplishments in literature and is frequently referenced as “the American Nobel” for its reputation as a forerunner to the Nobel.

RC Davis-Undiano, WLT’s executive director, commented that Neustadt juries are routinely made up of “the very best writers in the world.”

The jury’s list of finalists will be announced in June, and final deliberations and voting for the 2026 prize will take place at the University of Oklahoma during the Neustadt Lit Fest this fall (Oct. 20–22, 2025).

First awarded in 1970 to Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, the prize has gone to Nobel laureates Gabriel García Márquez, Czesław Miłosz and Octavio Paz as well as many well-known novelists, poets and playwrights.

The Neustadt Prize is given in alternating years with the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. The 2024 Neustadt Prize was awarded to Mauritian writer Ananda Devi.

More information about the Neustadt Prize can be found at neustadtprize.org or by emailing [email protected].