The Jury of The Aleksandar Tišma International Literary Prize, composed of Ilma Rakusa (Switzerland, Chair), Karl-Markus Gauß (Austria), Vladislava Gordić Petković (Serbia), Mathias Énard (France), and László Márton (Hungary), has decided to award this year’s Prize to Miljenko Jergović.

The Prize is awarded in recognition of Jergović’s outstanding literary oeuvre.

In her statement supporting the nomination, the Chair of the Jury, the Swiss writer and literary critic Ilma Rakusa, wrote: "Jergović is a master storyteller who possesses the rare ability to render complex themes compelling and accessible. His works frequently explore the destinies of families in historically turbulent times, addressing war and displacement, guilt and redemption, exile, and the search for personal identity."

Miljenko Jergović was born in Sarajevo in 1966 and has lived in the countryside near Zagreb since 1993. He is the author of around fifty books – including novels, short-story collections, poetry, and essays – which have been translated into thirty languages. Today, he is widely regarded as one of the most internationally acclaimed writers to emerge from the former Yugoslavia.

The shortlist for the 2026 edition of The Aleksandar Tišma International Literary Prize included five distinguished European authors: Miljenko Jergović, Georgi Gospodinov, Slobodan Šnajder, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, and Lea Ypi.

Previous recipients of the Prize are Cécile Wajsbrot (2024), David Albahari (2022), and László Darvasi (2019).

The Aleksandar Tišma International Literary Prize is awarded by the Aleksandar Tišma Foundation. Alongside promoting the legacy of the writer and academician Aleksandar Tišma internationally, the Foundation is dedicated to fostering stronger connections between Serbian literature and culture and the wider global literary community.