At GLLI, we have been paying attention to several U.S. and international awards that specifically honor and encourage translators and publishers to bring the best literary work from around the world to English readers. As of this writing, long and short listed titles are available on the award websites – and several winners have been announced.
For librarians who serve older teens and adult readers, we have created a handy, sortable spreadsheet, Best Translated Work for Academic, Public and High School Libraries: 2025-2026 so you can use it for your collection development need.
This spreadsheet aggregates the long listed titles from the following awards: National Book Award for Translated Literature (NBA-T), National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose (NTA-Poetry and NTA-Prose), PEN Award for Poetry in Translation (PEN-Poetry), PEN Translation Prize (PEN-Prose), The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation (Warwick), The Bukhman International Booker Prize (Booker), and two titles that in English translation on the Kirkus Prize list.
You can sort them by genre, language, geographical location (approximate), whether they are long or short listed or if a title is a winner. Each title is linked to either bookshop.org (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) or asterismbooks.com (poetry) with full description and purchase options. Translator, author, publisher, and sub-topics are also present. As more finalists and winners are announced, we will update the spreadsheet to reflect that as well.
As this is the first time we offer this document for librarians, we are aware that it is not an exhaustive list and there might be room for improvment. We welcome your input. Please feel free to leave a comment on functionality and design so we can improve on this product. If you have encountered other titles that either received other awards or should be highlighted at GLLI, please also let us and others know, so more librarians can be aware of the wealth of global literature available for them to collect.
Roxanne Hsu Feldman, fairrosa, is a retired middle and high school librarian in New York City. Roxanne identifies as Chinese/Taiwanese/American and is constantly learning more about the cultures and histories of all these heritages. She grew up in Taiwan, enriched by reading world literature translated into Chinese and worked as a translator for TV shows while teaching middle school English in the late 80s. She moved to the US for her master’s degree in Children’s Literature. Active in library associations, Roxanne also served on literary award committees such as the Newbery, Boston Globe-Horn Book, and Kirkus. She is currently on the GLLI Board as the Outreach Coordinator.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of GLLI.
