PEN Translates award winners from 15 countries revealed

Eighteen books from 15 countries, spanning 13 languages and 17 different publishers have won English PEN’s flagship translation awards, including the first collection of Miyah poetry in translation, as well as the first time PEN has awarded titles from Djibouti and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The PEN Translates award-winners include novels, short story collections, reportage, poetry collections and epic verse, children’s literature and political writing, with Pluto Press scoring two titles on the list with A Feminist Theory of Violence by Françoise Vergès, translated from French by Melissa Thackway, and A People's History of Football by Mickaël Correia, translated from French by Fionn Petch. 

This year's awards also include the first children’s book in Hungarian to feature LGBTQ+ protagonists, and the first time PEN has awarded work translated from the Mè’phàà and the Char-Chapori dialect of Assamese and Bengali. The list features the most publishers ever awarded in a single PEN Translates round.

PEN Translates has now supported more than 350 books translated from 60 languages, with 12 featuring on International Booker Prize longlists. In 2021, its supported titles have also been shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, the National Book Awards in the US, the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize, the Premio Valle Inclán, the TA First translation Prize, and the International Dublin Literary Award. PEN Translates has now awarded more than £1m in funding.

Will Forrester, translation and international manager at English PEN, said: "Not only are these 18 books exceptional works of literature, but they also attest to the current vitality of translated literature publishing. This is the most publishers ever awarded in a single PEN Translates round. Their books, united as works of outstanding writing and translating, span extraordinary differences in form, theme, geography and style: we have protest poetry, the political history of football, gritty short fiction, poetry from an indigenous language of the Americas, and all-embracing children’s literature, all sitting side by side. This is a thrilling set of books, and English PEN is thrilled to be helping them get to UK readers."

So Mayer, co-chair of the English PEN Translation Advisory Group, added: "The panel was thrilled to see the range of submissions, and especially to see increasing numbers of independent publishers developing translation lists, enabling us to reward the literary ambition and radical interventions of writers, translators and editors who are strengthening and expanding contemporary literature."

The PEN Translates award winners in full:

• What Have You Left Behind? by Bushra Al-Maqtari, translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain (Fitzcarraldo Editions). Country of origin: Yemen.
• House Arrest by Hasan Alizadeh, translated from Farsi by Kayvan Tahmasebian and Rebecca Ruth Gould (Arc Publications). Country of origin: Iran.
• Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated from Catalan by Julia Sanches (And Other Stories). Country of origin: Spain.
• To Love A Woman by Diana Bellessi, translated from Spanish by Leo Boix (Poetry Translation Centre). Country of origin: Argentina.
• The Gospel According to the New World by Maryse Condé, translated from French by Richard Philcox (World Editions). Country of origin: France.
• A People's History of Football by Mickaël Correia, translated from French by Fionn Petch (Pluto Press). Country of origin: France.
• Discretion by Faïza Guène, translated from French by Sarah Ardizzone (Westbourne Publishers). Country of origin: France.
• The Sacred Clan by Liang Hong, translated from Chinese by Esther Tyldesley (ACA Publishing). Country of origin: China.
• Ma is Scared by Anjali Kajal, translated from Hindi by Kavita Bhanot (Comma Press). Country of origin: India.
• Body Kintsugi by Senka Marić, translated from Bosnian by Celia Hawkesworth (Peirene Press). Country of origin: Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• The Dogs Dreamt by Hubert Matiúwàa, translated from Mè'phàà and Spanish by Juana Adcock (flipped eye publishing). Country of origin: Mexico.
• Fairy Tales Are For Everyone, translated from Hungarian by Anna Bentley (HarperCollins). Country of origin: Hungary.
• The Opposite of Seduction: New Poetry in German, translated from German (Shearsman). Countries of origin: Germany and Austria.
• I am Miyah: Poetry and Song by Bengali-Muslims in Assam, translated from Char-Chapori dialect of Assamese and Bengali by Shalim Hussain (Tilted Axis Press). Country of origin: India.
• Island Mountain Glacier by Anne Vegter, translated from Dutch by Astrid Alben (Prototype). Country of origin: Netherlands.
• A Feminist Theory of Violence by Françoise Vergès, translated from French by Melissa Thackway (Pluto Press). Country of origin: France.
• Why Do You Dance When You Walk? by Abdourahman Waberi, translated from French by Nicola Bell and David Bell (Cassava Republic Press). Country of origin: Djibouti.
• Annette: An Epic Heroine by Anne Weber, translated from German by Tess Lewis (The Indigo Press). Country of origin: France.