The jury for the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation has selected five works as its shortlist for this year’s prize, the fourth since the prize launched in July 2022.

The award, presented annually, aims to cultivate a new generation of literary translators working with South Asian languages. The prize’s theme this year was retranslations of works published from 1930 to the present, with the goal of illuminating new aspects of modern classics. The five entries reflect the breadth, linguistic complexity and robust modern literature of South Asia. This groundbreaking prize is the first of its kind worldwide.

The winner will be announced on June 8 at 9:30am EDT/7pm IST during an event co-hosted with Himal Southasian’s annual Fiction Fest. The livestreamed panel discussion will feature readings from the five finalists, remarks from jury members Jason Grunebaum and Pia Sawhney, and the live announcement of the 2026 prize winner.

Launched in July of 2022, the Armory Square Prize is an effort to remedy the stark disparities in literary translation worldwide and support compelling storytellers from the Indian Subcontinent by raising their visibility in the US. Of the nearly 7,600 books published in translation in the United States over the past decade, only 64, or fewer than 1%, originated from a South Asian language, even though these languages are spoken by a full one-fifth of the world’s population.

This year’s finalists are:

1. Rahul Soni's translation from Hindi of Dharmvir Bharati, The Seventh Horse of the Sun (Novel, 1952)

2. Sayari Debnath's translation from Bangla of Jibanananda Das,The Spirit-woman’s Fairytale and Other Stories (Short fiction, 1931-1933)

3. Vaibhav Sharma's translation from Hindi of Kamleshwar,The Town of Fifty-Seven Streets (Novel, 1956)

4. Rohan Chhetri's translation from Nepali of Parijat, Flowers of The Siris Tree (Novel, 1964)

5. Matt Reeck's translation from Hindi of Ranendra, The Lost Golden Land (Novel, 2014)

Excerpts of all five shortlisted works will be published by Words Without Borders, an online literary publication dedicated to works in translation with global reach. The winning book will be published by Open Letter Books in 2027.

The jury brings together award-winning specialists in South Asian and non-South Asian literary translation. This year, the jury comprised Deena Chalabi, Jason Grunebaum (jury chair), Daisy Rockwell, Srinath Perur, Pia Sawhney, Arunava Sinha, and Padma Viswanathan.

As part of its deliberations, the jury considered factors including the quality of the translation, the significance of the original work, and the degree of underrepresentation of the language in the US publishing market.