The International Booker Prize will be renamed in honor of Russian-born entrepreneur Buchman and his wife

The 2027 Man Booker International Prize will be named after Buchman. It will be renamed in honor of Russian-born entrepreneur Dmitry Buchman and his wife Daria.

This was reported by the Booker Prize Foundation during the presentation of the jury for next year.

The decision to rename the award was made because the Buchman family foundation “Buchman Philanthropy” pledged to fund the award for the next 10 years.

Gaby Wood, executive director of the “Booker Prize Foundation”, said the organization was "incredibly grateful" to “Buchman Philanthropy” for this funding, and to Daria Buchman personally for her support of translated literature.

“ʼBukhman Philanthropies’ support has the potential to change not only the future of the prize, but also the literary landscape itself — bringing to the forefront writers and translators whose stories bring us more deeply together, despite cultural differences, borders, and life experiences,” Wood noted.

In addition to the name, the size of the main prize will also change. Instead of £50 000, the winners will receive £100 000. These funds will, as before, be divided equally between the author and the translator.

Who are the Buchmans?

Dmitry Bukhman is a native of the Russian city of Vologda. In 2001, together with his brother Igor, they founded “Playrix”, a company that develops popular mobile games such as “Fishdom” and “Homescapes”. In 2016, Dmitry Bukhman and his family moved to Israel, where he obtained citizenship, and later to the United Kingdom.

At the same time, Buchman entered the Forbes ranking of the richest people in the world with a fortune of $3.1 billion. But the businessman asked Forbes to list him as an Israeli, not a Russian.

After the start of Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine, “Playrix” management called the company "apolitical" — at that time, about 1 500 Russians and the same number of Ukrainians worked there.

However, later, in March 2022, the company donated $500,000 to the Ukrainian Red Cross, and in October of the same year reported the closure of its offices in Russia and Belarus and its intention to retain its Ukrainian staff.

In 2025, Dmitry Bukhman received British citizenship and currently resides there. A year earlier, Dmitry and his wife Daria founded the charitable organization “Bukhman Philanthropies”, which, in particular, supports projects in the areas of literature, newborn and maternal health, and the mental well-being of children and youth. Daria positions herself as a health coach and yoga teacher.

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