World Literature Immediately, the College of Oklahoma’s award-winning journal of worldwide literature and tradition, has introduced the names of the jurors who will choose the finalists for the 2026 Neustadt Worldwide Prize for Literature. 

That jury consists of the next 9 members:

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

The jurors’ bios could be discovered on the Neustadt Prize web site.

This prestigious prize is awarded to a dwelling author from wherever in any style. It acknowledges nice accomplishments in literature and is ceaselessly referenced as “the American Nobel” for its repute as a forerunner to the Nobel.

RC Davis-Undiano, WLT’s government director, commented that Neustadt juries are routinely made up of “the easiest writers on the planet.”

The jury’s record of finalists will likely be introduced in June, and ultimate deliberations and voting for the 2026 prize will happen on the College of Oklahoma through 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 in addition to many well-known novelists, poets and playwrights.

The Neustadt Prize is given in alternating years with the NSK Neustadt Prize for Youngsters’s and Younger Grownup Literature. The 2024 Neustadt Prize was awarded to Mauritian author Ananda Devi.

Extra details about the Neustadt Prize could be discovered at neustadtprize.org or by emailing [email protected].