The International Booker Prize is to be renamed in honour of the Russian-born entrepreneur Buchman and his wife
This was announced by the Booker Prize Foundation during the presentation of next year’s shortlist.
The decision to rename the prize was taken because the Buchman family’s foundation — ‘Buchman Philanthropies’ — has committed to funding the prize for the next 10 years.
Gabi Wood, Executive Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, said that the organisation was “incredibly grateful” to “Bukhman Philanthropies” for this funding, and to Daria Bukhman personally for her support of translated literature.
“The support from Bukhman Philanthropies has the power to transform not only the future of the prize, but also the literary landscape itself — bringing to the fore writers and translators whose stories bring us closer together, despite cultural differences, borders and life experiences,” said Wood.
In addition to the name, the value of the prize’s main award will also change. Instead of £50,000, winners will receive £100,000. As before, this sum will be divided equally between the author and the translator.
Who are the Bukhmans?
Dmitry Bukhman was born in the Russian city of Vologda. In 2001, together with his brother Igor, he founded Playrix — a developer of popular mobile games such as Fishdom and Homescapes. In 2016, Dmitry Bukhman moved with his family to Israel, where he obtained citizenship, and later to the UK.
At that time, Bukhman entered the Forbes list of the world’s richest people with a fortune of $3.1 billion. However, the entrepreneur asked Forbes to list him as an Israeli rather than a Russian.
Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Playrix’s management described the company as ‘apolitical’ — at that time, it employed around 1,500 Russians and the same number of Ukrainians.
However, later, in March 2022, the company donated $500,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and in October of the same year announced the closure of its offices in Russia and Belarus and its intention to retain its Ukrainian staff.
In 2025, Dmytro Bukhman was granted British citizenship and is currently living there. A year earlier, Dmytro and his wife Daria founded the charitable organisation Bukhman Philanthropies, which, amongst other things, supports projects in the fields of literature, the health of newborns and mothers, and the mental wellbeing of children and young people. Daria describes herself as a health coach and yoga teacher.
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