2026 panel of judges

Sanam Maher is a journalist from Karachi. Her book, A Woman Like Her: The Short Life of Qandeel Baloch (Bloomsbury 2019), on the murder of Pakistan's first social media celebrity, was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times and The New Yorker. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC and Al Jazeera, among other publications and media. Since 2020, she has been a mentor for South Asia Speaks, a literary incubator for young writers in the region. She is also a contributing editor at Translator, a UK-based magazine of translated journalism and reportage from around the world. 

Noreen Masud is an Associate Professor in English Literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. Her academic monograph, Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language (2022) won the MSA First Book Award 2023 and the University English Prize in 2024. Her memoir-travelogue, A Flat Place (Penguin 2023), was shortlisted for The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Trust Young Writer of the Year Award, The Jhalak Prize, The RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards.

Sameer Rahim is a British novelist, critic, and publisher with nearly two decades of experience in literary journalism. He has held editorial roles at publications including The London Review of Books, The Daily Telegraph, and Prospect magazine, where he served as Deputy Editor. In 2022, Rahim was appointed Publisher at The Bridge Street Press, a non-fiction imprint of Little, Brown, a subsidiary of Hachette. Rahim’s debut novel, Asghar and Zahra (John Murray, 2019), received critical acclaim and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. His second novel, The English Boys, will be published in 2027. Rahim has also served as a judge for several literary awards, including the Forward Prize for Poetry, the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, the Costa Poetry Award, and the 2020 Booker Prize.