The Bernard Shaw Prize is 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.
Named after the author and dramatist, whose Nobel Prize went towards a foundation for ‘the promotion and diffusion of knowledge and appreciation of the literature and art of Sweden in the British Islands’, the prize was established in 1991 and is generously sponsored by the Anglo-Swedish Literary Foundation and the Embassy of Sweden in London.
The 2025 Bernard Shaw Prize has now closed for submissions.
The 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize winner
Saskia Vogel for a translation of Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm (Lolli Editions)
Photography © Natalie Thorpe
‘Saskia Vogel’s translation of this astonishing novel is truly virtuosic – the text comes alive in all its uncanny beauty as the English language is made to bend supply and excitingly without ever losing its elasticity.’
Nichola Smalley, 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize judge
The 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize runner-up
Jennifer Hayashida for a translation of Euphoria by Elin Cullhed (Canongate Books)
Photography © Natalie Thorpe
‘Euphoria. What a brave, some might say wild, choice Elin Cullhed made to tell the story of Sylvia Plath in Euphoria – but she pulls it off in vivid, moving style – and her translator Jennifer Hayashida is right there beside her, bringing this often-told tragic story to fresh, blazing light.’
Alison Flood, 2023 Bernard Shaw Prize judge