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The Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation

Morning landscape of hills in Sri Lanka

Terranceensen, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation was created to inspire new directions for translators into English from one of the most diverse, historically complex, and culturally vibrant regions of the world. Sponsored by Armory Square Ventures, the groundbreaking prize awards a talented translator of South Asian literature into English with the publication of their outstanding manuscript by Open Letter Books. Each year, WWB partners with Armory Square to present excerpts of the winning and semifinalist manuscripts.

The winner of the 2024 prize is Sana R. Chaudhry for her translation of Fahmida Riaz’s novel Fortress of the Forgotten Ones. Check back throughout early 2025 for excerpts of the 2024 winner and semifinalists.

The winner of the 2023 prize was Musharraf Ali Farooqi for his translation from Urdu of Siddique Alam’s The Kettledrum and Other Stories.

Portraits of Jason Grunebaum and Pia Sawhney

A New Translation Prize: The Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation

We want to showcase the best translations from South Asia, and help make visible authors, translators, and literature that are still largely invisible outside of South Asia.

The 2024 Armory Square Prize

Photo by Afshin T2Y on Unsplash.

An Uprising in Ctesiphon

By Fahmida Riaz

Winner of the 2024 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation, this excerpt from Fahmida Riaz’s novel Fortress of the Forgotten Ones takes us to the heart of the Sassanid Empire, where opulence and oppression collide, and a silent…

Translated from Urdu by Sana R. Chaudhry

Aerial Footage of Farmer

Photo by Dibakar Roy on Pexels.

A Working Man

A finalist for the 2024 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation, this extract from Abha Purbey's novella Gulabiya follows a farm manager as he quietly breaks under the weight of overwork and lost love.

Translated from Angika by Tejaswi Rawal & Shivangi Pandey

Multilingual

Photo by Arvin Yuan on Unsplash.

Colonel Gulchand Singh’s Disputed Property

By Anuradha Sarma Pujari

A finalist for the 2024 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation, Anuradha Sarma Pujari's story unfolds in the pressure cooker of exam week in a Delhi student hostel.

Translated from Assamese by Aruni Kashyap

Man riding a motorcycle

Photo by Aditya Rathod on Unsplash.

Saira Banu on Chacha’s Motorcycle

By Mridula Garg

Gul’s silky, delicately stitched gharara looked so gorgeous, she swooned at her own reflection.

Translated from Hindi by Aditya Vikram Shrivastava

Multilingual

space gray iPhone

Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash.

Viral

By Mahua Sen Mukhopadhyay

Not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that Mukul would upload the video to Facebook. It went viral in a day.

Translated from Bengali by Sayari Debnath

The 2023 Armory Square Prize

Empty train tracks disappearing into the horizon in a dry landscape

Photo by Robert Linder on Unsplash

The Kettledrum

By Siddique Alam

In the forest, between the acacia, mulberry, and stinging nettle bushes, where snakes shed their skin, she searched for Mangru’s footprints.

Translated from Urdu by Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Cobwebs outside of a house

Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

Morning Procession

Everybody knew that reading strange books was Shaam’s only hobby.

Translated from Hindi by Vaibhav Sharma

Photo by Heshan Weeramanthri on Unsplash

Parliament of Dogs

By Nasera Sharma

Seeing their community divided into two camps, some dogs developed a strange arrogance.

Translated from Hindi by Akshaj Awasthi

Multimedia

A large, shallow river with pines on the opposite bank and mountains in the distance

Nameri National Park. Photo by Debuapriyo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Smell of Bamboo Blossoms

By Yeshe Dorje Thongchi

Bamboo had been an intimate part of his life since his birth, but he had never known bamboo to produce seeds.

Translated from Assamese by Aruni Kashyap

A black-and-white photo of an interrogation room

Photo by Jonny Clow on Unsplash

It Started with a Phone Call

By Appadurai Muttulingam

First, we were taken to a private room and stripped and searched.

Translated from Tamil by Thila Varghese

MultimediaMultilingual