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The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation

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About the Prize

The prize launched in 2017 with the aim of addressing the gender imbalance in translated literature and increasing the number of international women’s voices accessible to a British and Irish readership. A report by Nielsen Book shows that translated literary fiction makes up only 3.5% of the literary fiction titles published in the UK, but accounts for 7% of the volume of sales. If translated literature as a whole is underrepresented on the British book market, then women’s voices in translation are even more peripheral. The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, for example, was awarded 21 times, but was won by a woman only twice.

In the words of Maureen Freely, former President of English PEN and Professor of Creative Writing at Warwick: "We've come a long way with the championing of world literature over the past decade, welcoming in a multiplicity of voices which have gone on to enrich us all. In the same period, however, we've noticed that it is markedly more difficult for women to make it into English translation. This prize offers us an opportunity to welcome in the voices and perspectives we've missed thus far."

The prize has been supported since 2020 by the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia, and in 2020, 2021 and 2023 by the British Comparative Literature Association.

BCLA logoLink opens in a new window

BCLT logoLink opens in a new window

Rules and How to Enter

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation will be awarded annually to the best eligible work of fiction, poetry, literary non-fiction, work of fiction for children or young adults, graphic novel, or play text, written by a woman, translated into English by a translator (or translators) of any gender, and published by a UK or Irish publisher. The £1,000 prize is divided between the writer and her translator(s), with each contributor receiving an equal share. In cases where the writer is no longer living, the translator will receive all of the prize money.

The Prize is open to any novel, novella, collection of short stories, collection of poetry, book-length work of creative/literary non-fiction, book-length work of fiction for children or young adults, graphic novel or play text originally written in any language other than English by a woman of any nationality and translated into English by a person of any gender, provided that the translation in question was published for the first time in print form in the United Kingdom and/or Ireland between 1 April, 2022 and 31 March, 2023.

Only translations published in the UK and/or Ireland are eligible for entry. In order to prove that the translation complies with this rule, it will need to have a UK or Ireland ISBN and be distributed in the UK and/or Ireland; furthermore, its publisher must have a registered office in the UK and/or Ireland.

Re-translations of previously translated works are eligible. Co-translated volumes are eligible. Self-translations are eligible. Co-authored volumes are eligible but anthologies comprising multiple authors are not eligible.

The submission period for 2023 opens on 3 April 2023. The deadline for completion of the online entry form is Friday 19 May 2023. The deadline for hard copies is Friday 26 May 2023. The postal address for hard copies is included in the email confirming submission of the online entry form. Please read the rulesLink opens in a new window carefully before completing this form.

Any queries can be addressed to Holly Langstaff at womenintranslation@warwick.ac.uk.

Women in Translation News

We are pleased to publish the list of eligible entries to the 2023 prizeLink opens in a new window, for use by translators, publishers, bookshops, cultural organisations and researchers, and in order to promote the cause of women in translation more generally. The 2023 prize has received a record number of entries: 153 entries from 32 languages. For previous submissions to the prize, see lists of eligible titles submitted in 2022Link opens in a new window, 2021Link opens in a new window, 2020Link opens in a new window, 2019Link opens in a new window, 2018Link opens in a new window and 2017.Link opens in a new window

Read our 2017 press release about the launch of the prize in English, Catalan, Chinese, French, Galician, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Women in Translation Events and Publications

Do you have a women in translation event or news item to publicise? If so, please drop us a line at womenintranslation@warwick.ac.uk.

Héloïse Press events in autumn 2023:

In the News

Here are some of the articles and blog posts that have drawn attention to the gender imbalance in literature translated into English over the last few years:

How English readers miss out on foreign women writers by Sian Cain

10 female translators on the work that inspires them. Interviews by Alison Flood.

Where are the women in translation?Link opens in a new window by Alison Anderson

Briefing notes: Where are the women in translation?Link opens in a new window by Sophie Mayer

Kamila Shamsie: Let's have a year of publishing only women - a provocationLink opens in a new window

And Other Stories to take part in Year of Publishing Women 2018Link opens in a new window

A women's prize for translated booksLink opens in a new window by Katy Derbyshire

Why we need a prize for women in translationLink opens in a new window by Susan Bernofsky

And the prize for women in Arabic translation goes to ... no one?Link opens in a new window by Elisabeth Jaquette

Women in translation, part I: Fourteen countriesLink opens in a new window by Chad Post

And a few words of thanks ...

The literary translation community were instrumental in raising awareness of the gender imbalance in translated literature and in arguing the case for this prize. The prize committee would like to offer its particular thanks to Meytal Radzinski, who created Women in Translation month, and Joanna Walsh, Katy Derbyshire and Rachel McNicholl, without whom this prize would not have come into being. And Alison Anderson kick-started it all with a Words Without Borders article which you can read here. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and Chad Post at Three Percent are owed a debt of gratitude for the practical work of awareness-raising. Thanks also go to Arianna Autieri, Alex Corcos, Nick Cherryman, Lúcia Collischonn, Holly Langstaff, Caroline Parker and Jami Rogers for their administrative support, and to Simon Gilson, former Chair of the Arts Faculty at Warwick, and Alison Ribeiro de Menezes, former Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Warwick, who understood the importance of this initiative. In 2020 and 2021 we were very grateful for the financial support of the British Comparative Literature Association and the British Centre for Literary Translation. And last but not least, we would like to thank our judges: Amanda Hopkinson, Boyd Tonkin and Susan Bassnett.

This prize is a rallying call to translators and publishers everywhere. There are dozens of fine women writers waiting to be translated - so let's see more of them in our bookshops.

Susan Bassnett, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature