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.

The prize is generously 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.

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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, 2023 and 31 March, 2024.

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 2024 opens on 2 April 2024. The deadline for completion of the online entry form is Friday 3 May 2024. The deadline for hard copies is Friday 10 May 2024. 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.