We’re excited to share that Magdalen alumnus and Honorary Fellow Julian Barnes (1964) has won the 2026 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature.
The prize is awarded to writers whose cultural work has made a significant international impact. Previous winners of the literature prize include heavyweights like Haruki Murakami and Margaret Atwood. It is a massive achievement.
Julian studied Modern Languages here at Magdalen before embarking on his incredible literary career. He worked as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary and later became a brilliant reviewer and columnist.
His fiction is widely celebrated. He was a Booker Prize finalist three times before winning the trophy in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending. His final memoir, Departure(s), was published just this year. It marks his retirement from writing.