Dahlia de la Cerda, a 39-year-old Mexican writer born in Aguascalientes, is the only Latin American author among the thirteen finalists for the 2025 Booker International Prize. This prestigious British literary award honors a work by a writer from another country, translated into English. De la Cerda was selected for her work 'Reservoir Bitches', published in 2019 and translated into English by Julia Sanches and Heather Clary.
The jury evaluated 154 works submitted by publishers and published in the United Kingdom between May 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025. In addition to De la Cerda, the list of thirteen finalists includes authors from Palestine, Denmark, Romania, Switzerland, Italy, India, Suriname, Japan (2), and France (3).
In the words of the jury, 'Reservoir Bitches' is 'a collection of interconnected stories about contemporary Mexican women. Highly entertaining yet deadly serious, it is absolutely explosive from the first page to the last.' The decision of the winner will be announced on May 20 at the London Tate Modern museum, and the prize consists of £50,000 to be shared between the author and the translator.
Among the other finalists are works such as 'The Book of Disappearance' by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon; 'On the Calculation of Volume I' by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland; and 'There's a Monster Behind the Door' by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert, among others.
Since it began in 2005, the Booker International Prize has not had any winners who write in Spanish or Portuguese. In the last edition, the German writer Jenny Erpenbeck won among the six finalists, which also included the Argentine Selva Almada.
