PEN Translates awards: titles in 10 languages win prizes

Works across different genres—and in 10 languages—have won English PEN’s flagship translation awards, PEN Translates. 

The books selected demonstrate outstanding literary quality, and are also judged on the strength of the publishing project and their contribution to the UK’s bibliodiversity. 

PEN Translates is supported by Arts Council England, and the award was launched with the aim of encouraging UK publishers to acquire more books from other languages, helping them to meet the costs associated with translation. It funds up to 75% of these costs for selected projects, but PEN also considers supporting up to 100% of translation costs in cases where a publisher’s annual turnover is less than £500,000.

Two of the books awarded—a collection of short stories by Banu Mushtaq, translated from the Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, and The Aquatics by Osvalde Lewat, translated from the French by Maren Baudet-Lackner—were projects supported through English PEN’s grant for sample translations, PEN Presents. They were subsequently acquired by And Other Stories and Cassava Republic Press, respectively.

Mushtaq’s collection of short stories has also been supported through a ring-fenced fund for Indian literature in translation in partnership with the British Council. This partnership was established as part of the India/UK Together Season of Culture, and included the inaugural round of PEN Presents in 2022, of which Mushtaq and Bhasthi were winners.

"These 16 awards are selected from our largest round of submissions to date," said Will Forrester, head of literature programmes at English PEN. "The breadth, boldness, originality, risk-taking, spirit and quality exhibited across the submissions and award-winners is staggering—and speaks to the thriving state of translated literature publishing."

Yásnaya Elena A Gil’s Ää: Manifestos on Linguistic Diversity, translated from the Spanish and Mixe by Ellen Jones (Charco Press), is one the winning titles by a Mexican writer to win the prize this year. The other book, which was translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches, is Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda (Scribe UK).

Delicious Hunger by Singaporean writer Hai Fan, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (Tilted Axis Press), was also on this year’s list of winners. Fan was joined by Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas of Cuba, whose The Weasel and the Whore, translated from the Spanish by Julia Sanches and Jennifer Shyue (Héloïse Press), won her the award.

Representing Brazil is Bernardo Kucinski with The Congress of the Disappeared, translated from the Portuguese by Tom Gatehouse (Latin America Bureau). French writer Xavier Le Clerc’s A Man with No Title, translated from the French by William Rodarmor (Saqi Books), has also been awarded the prize. From Egypt and the UK, Shady Lewis is on the winner’s list with On the Greenwich Line, translated from the Arabic by Katharine Halls (Peirene Press). Also a winner this year is Nguyễn Ngọc Tư from Vietnam, with Water: A Chronicle, translated from the Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý (Major Books).

Antonio Ramos Revillas’ The Wild Ones, translated from the Spanish by Claire Storey (HopeRoad), has won the prize alongside Jellyfish Have No Ears by French author Adèle Rosenfeld, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (MacLehose Press). From Sudan and Austria, Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin is a winner for Samahani, translated from the Arabic by Mayada Ibrahim and Adil Ibrahim Babikir (Foundry Editions), while Greenland is represented among the winners by Sørine Steenholdt’s Zombieland, translated from the Greenlandic by Charlotte Barslund (Norvik Press).

French-Vietnamese author Thuận has been awarded the translation prize for Elevator In Saigon, translated from the Vietnamese by Nguyễn An Lý (Tilted Axis Press), as has Iran + 100, which was written by various authors, and translated from the Farsi by many translators (Comma Press).

"We have five Spanish titles speaking compellingly for the linguistic, cultural and social diversity surging from Central and Latin America," said So Mayer, English PEN Translation advisory co-chair, "new queer writing in French from Algerian and Cameroonian novelists; two highly mobile Vietnamese feminist mysteries; Arabic fiction from an Egyptian writer living in East London and a Black Sudanese writer living in Austria; the intricacies of language from a d/Deaf perspective; the sensory world of food as experienced by Malayan Communists at war; and two stunning celebrations of the art of the short story in Farsi and Kannada." 

Rachel Stevens, director of literature at the British Council, added: "We are thrilled that Banu Mushtaq’s collection of short stories is among this excellent line up of texts to have been supported through this edition of PEN Translates. We are hugely proud to have supported this work previously through the Indian edition of PEN Presents, demonstrating the importance of funding sample translations, selected by the translators, in creating platforms for new and challenging work from underrepresented languages to English-language readers."