The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation
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 showed that in 2015 translated literary fiction made up only 3.5% of the literary fiction titles published in the UK, but accounted for 7% of the volume of sales. If translated literature as a whole was underrepresented on the British book market, then women’s voices in translation were 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."
Read our 2017 press release about the launch of the prize in English, Catalan, Chinese, French, Galician, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
Rules
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, 2024 and 31 March, 2025.
Please read the rulesLink opens in a new window carefully before opening your submission to the prize via this formLink opens in a new window.
Any queries can be addressed to Holly Langstaff at womenintranslation@warwick.ac.uk.
News
Do you have an event, article, or news item to publicise? Email us details: womenintranslation at warwick dot ac dot uk.
List of Submissions 2025
We are pleased to publish the list of eligible entries to the 2025 prize, for use by translators, publishers, bookshops, organisations and researchers, and in order to promote the cause of women in translation more generally. For previous lists of submissions, see: 2024Link opens in a new window, 2023Link opens in a new window, 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
Judges 2025
We are delighted to announce that the author Véronique Tadjo has joined the judging panel in 2025. Véronique joins Boyd Tonkin and Susan Bassnett. Read about our judging panel here.
Articles and Blog Posts
'Changing the Landscape: Diversity and Translated Fiction in the UK Publishing Industry'Link opens in a new window by Chantal Wright and Helen Vassallo (2024)
The Visual Success of Women in Translation MonthLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, by Chad Post (2023)
Generation TF: Who Is Really Reading Translated Fiction in the UK?Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, a report by the Booker Prize Foundation (2023)
For an archive of articles and blog posts, see Women in Translation in the NewsLink opens in a new window.
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 RadzinskiLink opens in a new window, who created Women in Translation month, and Joanna WalshLink opens in a new window, Katy DerbyshireLink opens in a new window 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 hereLink opens in a new window. VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and Chad Post at Three Percent Link opens in a new windoware owed a debt of gratitude for the practical work of awareness-raising. Thanks also go to Arianna Autieri, Alex Corcos, Nick Cherryman, Lúcia Collischonn, Caroline Parker and Jami Rogers for their administrative support in earlier years, 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.
The prize is gen
erously sponsored by the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick. We are very grateful to the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia for their financial contribution to the prize money since 2020.
The prize was established by Chantal Wright in 2017 and we remain deeply grateful to Chantal for her work and her continued support. Last but not least, we would like to thank our judges for their work: 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