The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize
Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.
— Anthony Burgess
The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and is supported by New College, The Queen’s College, and St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Previous winners include: Monica Cure for Liliana Corobca’s The Censor's Notebook (Seven Stories); Nancy Naomi Carlson for Khal Torabully’s Cargo Hold of Stars (Seagull Books); Nichola Smalley for Andrzej Tichý’s Wretchedness (And Other Stories); David Hackston for Pajtim Statovci’s Crossing (Pushkin); Celia Hawkesworth for Ivo Andrić’s Omer Pasha Latas (New York Review Books); Lisa Dillman for Andrés Barba’s Such Small Hands (Portobello); Frank Perry for Lina Wolff’s Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs (And Other Stories); Philip Roughton for Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s The Heart of Man (MacLehose); Paul Vincent and John Irons for 100 Dutch-Language Poems (Holland Park); Susan Bernofsky for Jenny Erpenbeck’s The End of Days (Portobello); Susan Wicks for Valérie Rouzeau’s Talking Vrouz (Arc); Philip Boehm for Herta Müller’s The Hunger Angel (Portobello); Judith Landry for Diego Marani’s New Finnish Grammar (Dedalus).
The prize of £2000 will be awarded at the annual Oxford Translation Day at St Anne’s College, Oxford in June 2025. Oxford Translation Day will feature talks, seminars, and workshops, and will give shortlisted translators the opportunity to read from and discuss their work.
The 2025 Shortlist
Erminia Dell’Oro, Abandonment (Heloise) translated from the Italian by Oonagh Stransky
Sara Mesa, Un Amor (Peirene) translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore
Adèle Rosenfeld, Jellyfish Have No Ears (MacLehose) translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, The Silence of the Choir (Europa) translated from the French (Senegal) by Alison Anderson
Krzysztof Siwczyk, A Calligraphy of Days (Seagull Books) translated from the Polish by Piotr Florczyk and Alice-Catherine Carls
Slobodan Šnajder, The Brass Age (Mountain Leopard) translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth
Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Your Absence is Darkness (MacLehose) translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton
Alejandro Zambra, Childish Literature (Fitzcarraldo) translated from the Spanish (Chile) by Megan McDowell
The 2025 Longlist
Erminia Dell’Oro, Abandonment (Heloise) translated from the Italian by Oonagh Stransky
Mariana Enríquez, A Sunny Place for Shady People (Granta) translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Megan McDowell
Lale Gül, I Will Live (Virago) translated from the Dutch by Kristen Gehrman
Balsam Karam, The Singularity (Fitzcarraldo) translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel
Andrey Kurkov, The Silver Bone (MacLehose) translated from the Ukrainian by Boris Dralyuk
Sara Mesa, Un Amor (Peirene) translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore
Claudia Piñeiro, Time of the Flies (Charco) translated from the Spanish (Argentina) by Frances Riddle
Susanna Rafart, Chrysalis, Pastoral in B Minor (Fum d’Estampa) translated from the Catalan by Megan Berkobien and María Cristina Hall
Lucas Rijneveld, My Heavenly Favourite (Faber) translated from the Dutch by Michele Hutchison
Adèle Rosenfeld, Jellyfish Have No Ears (MacLehose) translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Ulrike Almut Sandig, Shining Sheep (Seagull) translated from the German by Karen Leeder
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, The Silence of the Choir (Europa) translated from the French (Senegal) by Alison Anderson
Krzysztof Siwczyk, A Calligraphy of Days (Seagull Books) translated from the Polish by Piotr Florczyk and Alice-Catherine Carls
Slobodan Šnajder, The Brass Age (Mountain Leopard) translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth
Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Your Absence is Darkness (MacLehose) translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton
Alejandro Zambra, Childish Literature (Fitzcarraldo) translated from the Spanish (Chile) by Megan McDowell
