More than £32,000 in prize money will be shared among the winners and runners-up, celebrating outstanding translations of prose, poetry and non-fiction, across a range of genres.
This year will see the John Calder Translation Prize awarded for the first time, for translations of full-length ambitious and groundbreaking literary works from any language.
Fiona Sze-Lorrain, one of the judges for this award, said: “Translation creates a new republic of books that transcends boundaries and translators are often the unsung heroines/heroes. Our inaugural John Calder Prize shortlist honours the art of translation and world literature.”
Among those shortlisted for the John Calder Translation Prize is Alexandra Roesch, for a translation of Boy With a Black Rooster, which is also shortlisted for the Schlegel-Tieck Prize.
Translations from languages from around the globe will be celebrated at the ceremony, including first translations from Bengali and Bulgarian for the TA First Translation Prize.
The 2025 Translation Prizes ceremony will be held in February 2026.
All the shortlisted books from the 2025 Translation Prizes are available to purchase via Bookshop.org. A percentage of all book sales will be donated to the SoA Access Fund.
John Calder Translation Prize
Translation creates a new republic of books that transcends boundaries and translators are often the unsung heroines/heroes. Our inaugural John Calder Translation Prize shortlist honours the art of translation and world literature. This is an impressive list of six books translated from languages including French, German, Spanish, and Swedish.
Judge Fiona Sze-Lorrain
An annual award for translations into English of full-length ambitious, groundbreaking works of literary merit and general interest generously supported by Alma Books and Sheila Colvin-Calder. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. Submissions can be from any language into English. This year’s judges are Jon McGregor, Helen Oyeyemi and Fiona Sze-Lorrain.
The shortlist:
Lizzie Davis for a translation from Spanish of The Abandoners by Begoña Gómez Urzaiz (The Borough Press)
Katy Derbyshire for a translation from German of Mountainish by Zsuzsanna Gahse (Prototype)
Tess Lewis for a translation from French of Nevermore by Cécile Wajsbrot (Seagull Books)
Megan McDowell for a translation from Spanish of A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez (Granta)
Alexandra Roesch for a translation from German of Boy With a Black Rooster by Stefanie vor Schulte (The Indigo Press)
Saskia Vogel for a translation from Swedish of Bread and Milk by Karolina Ramqvist (Manilla Press, Bonnier Books UK)
TA First Translation Prize
The range of nominated books was vast, and I found myself bounced from continent to continent, from Eastern European peasant life, to sexual mores in 1930s Indochina. It was joyful, but also dizzying. Whittling it down to a shortlist involved hard decisions, and I knew I would be forced to say goodbye to some very fine works of literature. Together, these stories demonstrate the power and the glory of world literature, and the importance of translation in reenergising English prose writing.
Judge Anthony McGowan
An annual prize for a debut literary translation into English published in the UK and Ireland. Submissions can be from any language into English. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. The Prize is shared between the translator and their editor(s). It was established in 2017 and generously endowed by Daniel Hahn and Jo Heinrich, with support from the British Council. This year’s judges are Anam Zafar, Stella Sabin and Anthony McGowan.
The shortlist:
Rijula Das and editor Sunandini Banerjee for a translation from Bengali of Beggars’ Bedlam by Nabarun Bhattacharya (Seagull Books)
Yana Ellis and editor Dženana Vucic for a translation from Bulgarian of The Wolves of Staro Selo by Zdravka Evtimova (Héloïse Press)
Gwendolyn Harper and editors John Siciliano and Rory Williamson for a translation from Spanish of A Last Supper of Queer Apostles by Pedro Lemebel (Pushkin Press)
Antonella Lettieri and editor Richard Village for a translation from Italian of Your Little Matter by Maria Grazia Calandrone (Foundry Editions)
Sheela Mahadevan and editor Christine Dunbar for a translation from French of Lakshmi’s Secret Diary by Ari Gautier (Columbia University Press)
Maggie Zebracka and editors Mark Tardi and Aina Marti-Balcells for a translation from Polish of QUEENLESS by Mira Marcinów (Héloïse Press)
Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize
The shortlisted novels include two comic works, a historical epic, a dystopian fiction, a prison memoir, and an eco-novel from the Gulf. Memory, identity, freedom and repression are common themes (among many more) whereas style-wise each work is unique, creating its own special literary aesthetic.
The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize judges
An annual award, established by Banipal Magazine and the Banipal Trust for Arab Literature, for published translations from Arabic of full-length works of imaginative and creative writing of literary merit and general interest. The prize is sponsored by the Saif Ghobash family in memory of their husband and father, the late Saif Ghobash, who was a passionate bibliophile. The winner is awarded £3,000 and the runner-up receives £1,000. This year’s judges are Professor Tina Phillips (Chair), Nashwa Nasreldin, Dr Susan Frenk and Boyd Tonkin Hon. FRSL.
The shortlist:
Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain for a translation of The Guardian of Surfaces by Bothayna Al-Essa (Selkies House Limited)
Marilyn Booth for a translation of Honey Hunger: A Novel by Zahran Alqasmi (Hoopoe, American University in Cairo Press)
Katharine Halls for a translation of On the Greenwich Line by Shady Lewis (Peirene Press)
Kay Heikkinen for a translation of Granada: The Complete Trilogy by Radwa Ashour (Hoopoe, American University in Cairo Press)
Luke Leafgren for a translation of The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on Hope and Freedom by Nasser Abu Srour (Penguin Press)
Barbara Romaine for a translation of Sand-Catcher by Omar Khalifah (Coffee House Press)
Scott Moncrieff Prize
This year’s Scott Moncrieff shortlist showcases the extraordinary range and vitality of contemporary French writing in translation. Together, these books remind us of translation’s power to renew the human spirit by connecting imaginations across the barrier of different languages.
Judge Adam Hamdy
An annual award for translations into English of full-length French works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. Established in 1965, and named after the celebrated translator of Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu, the prize is generously sponsored by the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni. This year’s judges are Clare Finburgh Delijani, Shumona Sinha and Adam Hamdy.
The shortlist:
Chris Andrews for a translation of I Don’t Care by Ágota Kristóf (New Directions Publishing)
Ruth Diver for a translation of The Convoy by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse (Open Borders Press)
Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert for a translation of There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem (Bullaun Press)
Mark Polizzotti for a translation of Command Performance by Jean Echenoz (New York Review Books Classics)
Frank Wynne for a translation of Sleeping Children by Anthony Passeron (Pan Macmillan, Picador)
Goethe-Institut Award for New Translation
This atmospheric text by the Austrian writer Jana Volkmann, complete with unreliable narrator and errant horse, attracted a very high standard of submissions. Inevitably, fifty-four translators produced fifty-four very different texts. Our sometimes-converging, sometimes-unified perspectives proved invaluable as we trawled through to create our shortlist. We also realised this: even if you have a checklist of what you want to see in a winning rendition, it’s often the intangibles that make one in particular stand out.
The Goethe-Institut Award for New Translation judges
The Goethe-Institut Award for New Translation was founded in 2010 and is presented by the Society of Authors and the Goethe-Institut London every two years. This translation prize is aimed at new and emerging translators whose literary translation work has not yet been published in print. The winner is awarded €1,000 and is invited to attend the Leipzig Book Fair (usually held in March each year), including a place at the International Translators’ meeting organised by the Literary Colloquium Berlin. This year’s judges are Monique Charlesworth and Jamie Lee Searle.
The shortlist:
Nick Browne
Sarah Escritt
John Macmillan
Amanda Oliver
Sarah Rimmington
For a translation of an extract from Der Beste Tag Seit Langem by Jana Volkmann provided for translation with kind permission of publisher Residenz Verlag.
Schlegel-Tieck Prize
All the books on the shortlist illuminate, in one way or another, something of what it means to be European. These books are therefore timely and important, showing us some of the ways in which we are all connected despite differences in origin or language. These are humane, and human works, whose translators have produced not just readable, but often extremely beautiful, books.
Judge Kerri Andrews
An annual award for translations into English of full-length German works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. The prize was first awarded in 1965 and is named for two poets of the Romantic period, August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767-1845) and Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853). This year’s judges are Shaun Whiteside, Anju Okhandiar and Kerri Andrews.
The shortlist:
Jon Cho-Polizzi for a translation of Djinns by Fatma Aydemir (Peirene Press)
Charlotte Collins for a translation of Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse (Scribe Publications)
Charlotte Collins for a translation of The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, The Orion Publishing Group)
Gesche Ipsen for a translation of The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability by Annette Kehnel (Profile Books)
Alexandra Roesch for a translation of Boy With a Black Rooster by Stefanie vor Schulte (The Indigo Press)
Rachel Ward for a translation of One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz (Orenda Books)
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Translation Prize
Reading the nominations side by side reaffirmed the multiplicity of voices to be found in Japanese literature, and the promise that translation carries to allow those voices to travel. Each work evidently carried different challenges for the translator, whether in terms of the use of regional vernaculars and more experimental prose in the original, or the complexity of the narrative being told.
Judge Dr Victoria Young
An annual award for translations into English of full-length Japanese-language works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. The prize is generously supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. This year’s judges are Lila Matsumoto, Asa Yoneda and Dr Victoria Young.
The shortlist:
Polly Barton for a translation of Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (Viking, Penguin Random House)
Bryan Karetnyk for a translation of The Little Sparrow Murders by Seishi Yokomizo (Pushkin Press)
Stephen Snyder for a translation of Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa (Harvill Secker, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
Ginny Tapley Takemori for a translation of Mornings With My Cat Mii by Mayumi Inaba (Harvill Secker, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
Premio Valle Inclán
The shortlist captures the range and vitality of contemporary literature from the Spanish-speaking world – from poetry and erotic fiction, to genre-defying collections – while showcasing the remarkable skill of the translators who have brought these books to international readers. Both emerging and established translators are represented, alongside independent and traditional publishers. Each book honours its source, while offering a lively and imaginative interpretation in English.
Judge Luiza Sauma
An annual prize for translations into English of full-length Spanish language works of literary merit and general interest. The prize was established in 1997. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. This year’s judges are Lawrence Schimel, Gaby Sambuccetti and Luiza Sauma.
The shortlist:
Katie Brown for a translation of From Savagery by Alejandra Banca (Selkies House Limited)
Richard Gwyn for a translation of Invisible Dog by Fabio Morábito (Carcanet Press)
Megan McDowell for a translation of Childish Literature by Alejandro Zambra (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Megan McDowell for a translation of The Mysterious Disappearance of the Marquise of Loria by José Donoso (New Directions Publishing)
Katie Whittemore for a translation of Un Amor by Sara Mesa (Peirene Press)
Frank Wynne for a translation of The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar (Harvill Secker, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
Bernard Shaw Prize
This shortlist echoed with ideas, characters and cultures that were both enthralling and unexpected. Through the easiness of the text, these translators enabled us to see inside societies that are not our own, making us not only reflect upon them, but on ourselves. Through fiction, memoir and poetic prose, they challenged my preconceptions of Sweden and its peoples. The shortlist isn’t only a credit to these individual translators, but the power and importance of translation to shake us up and make us think.
Judge Dea Birkett
A biennial award for translations into English of full-length Swedish language works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000. The prize was established in 1991 and is generously sponsored by the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation and the Embassy of Sweden in London. This year’s judges are Kate Lambert, Tom Geddes and Dea Birkett.
The shortlist:
Agnes Broomé for a translation of Collected Works: A Novel by Lydia Sandgren (Pushkin Press)
Elizabeth Clark Wessel for a translation of The Eighth House: A mother, A murder, An obsession by Linda Segtnan (Ithaka Press, Bonnier Books UK)
Fiona Graham for a translation of The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi by Elin Anna Labba (University of Minnesota Press)
Nichola Smalley for a translation of Purity by Andrzej Tichý (And Other Stories)
Saskia Vogel for a translation of Caesaria by Hanna Nordenhök (Héloïse Press)
Saskia Vogel for a translation of The Singularity by Balsam Karam (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
