UK PEN Translates grant winners announced

PEN Translates, a key program supporting translated literature implemented by English PEN, announced its winners.

PEN Translates has now supported over 400 books translated from over 90 languages, awarding over £1.2m in grants. Books were selected on the basis of outstanding literary quality, the strength of the publishing project, and their contribution to UK bibliodiversity.

Books from 14 publishers, translated from 12 languages by authors from 16 regions of the world, were supported in this selection. These include memoirs, poetry, non-fiction, children’s literature, and, for the first time in the program’s history, translations from Slovak and Mauritian Creole. Another award was made to a book in partnership with the SALT (South Asian Literature in Translation) Project at the University of Chicago.

PEN Translates award winners: 

• “Dom’s Dream Kingdom” by Victoria Amelina (Ukraine), translated from the Ukrainian by Dominique Hoffman (HarperCollins Publishers). 

• “The Cornelias” by Beata Balogová (Slovakia), translated from the Slovak by Isabel Stainsby (Jantar Publishing). 

• “Piñen” by Daniela Catrileo (Chile), translated from the Spanish and Mapudungun by Jacob Edelstein (Charco Press). 

• “You Know The Sun Bothers Me” by Ryan Falzon (Malta), translated from the Maltese by Joe Gatt (Foundry Editions).

• “The Field” by Hamdi Abu Golayyel (Egypt), translated from Arabic by Robin Moger (Saqi Books). 

• “Adrift in the South” by Xiao Hai (China), translated from the Chinese by Tony Hao (Granta Magazine Editions). 

• “Under the Neem Tree” by Rania Mamoun (Sudan), translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (Comma Press).

• “Eating Ashes” by Brenda Navarro (Mexico), translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell (Oneworld Publications). 

• “Leaving” by Andrej Nikolaidis (Montenegro), translated from the Montenegrin by Will Firth (Peirene Press). 

• “Electric Shamans at the Festival of the Sun” by Mónica Ojeda (Ecuador), translated from the Spanish by Sarah Booker (Granta Publications). 

• “The Rasta’s Song” by Sharon Paul (Mauritius), translated from the French and Mauritian Creole by Nadiyah Abdullatif (Balestier Press). 

• “The Compendium of Impossible Objects” by Carlo Paulo Pacolor (Philippines), translated from the Filipino by Soleil David (Tilted Axis Press). 

• “One Hundred Guinea Pigs” by Gustavo Rodríguez (Peru), translated from the Spanish (Peruvian) by Daniel Hahn (Charco Press). 

• “City Like Water” by Dorothy Tse (Hong Kong), translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce (Fitzcarraldo Editions). 

• “Red (Hunger)” by Senthuran Varatharajah (Germany) translated from German by Vijay Khurana (Tilted Axis Press).

• “Maps to Nowhere” by Nara Vidal (Brazil), translated from the Portuguese by Emyr Humphreys (Parthian Books). 

• “Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life” by Samar Yazbek (Syria), translated from the Arabic by Leri Price (Fitzcarraldo Editions). 

PEN Translates x SALT 

• “Guilty as Charged: selected poems of exile 1981-1987” by Fahmida Riaz (Pakistan), translated from Urdu by Poorna Swami (Ugly Duckling Presse).

Victoria Amelina’s novel was one of the projects selected by PEN Translates in 2026 to receive financial aid for entry into the English-language market. The book was translated from Ukrainian by Dominique Hoffman, with the English edition currently being prepared by HarperCollins Publishers.

RELATED: Victoria Amelina receives 2025 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing posthumously

“I can’t wait to read these books. The large number of applications meant some tough decisions, but the 18 projects we have selected encompass an inspiring range of languages, voices, and themes that gives me hope for the future of UK translation publishing. Being on a panel with such frank and thoughtful colleagues from across the industry — from booksellers to agents to translators — was so rewarding, and my thanks go to them as well as to the staff at English PEN and all the publishers who worked so hard on their submissions,” said Nichola Smalley, English PEN Translation Advisory Co-chair and Chair of the PEN Translates Selection Panel.

“Dom’s Dream Kingdom” tells the story of a Soviet family named Tsilyk: an old colonel, several generations of women, and Dominik, a poodle and the narrator of the story. The book was published in Ukraine by the Old Lion Publishing House in 2017, and was shortlisted for the LitAccent of the Year Award, the UNESCO City of Literature Award, and the European Union Prize for Literature.

Amelina wrote the novels “November Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens,” “Dom’s Dream Kingdom,” and numerous children’s books. She was also a volunteer, activist, and public figure. In the months following Russia’s full-scale invasion, Victoria joined the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds and went to liberated territories in Ukraine to record the testimonies of war crimes committed by Russian occupying forces. Amelina tragically passed away on July 1 due to serious injuries sustained during the Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk. As reported, 12 other people were killed and 64 were wounded in the shelling.

In 2024, Amelina was posthumously awarded the Prix Voltaire special prize, and in 2025, her book “Looking at Women Looking at War” won the Orwell Prize. A scholarship program for writers was also created in memory of Amelina.

RELATED: Victoria Amelina: No words are needed after a tragedy, all words slide into a whirlpool

Main image: International Book Arsenal Festival

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn and Terra King