2026 Prize

The Stevns Translation Prize 2026 is now closed.

This year’s prize focuses on Vietnamese, and the selected title is Bảo Tàng Lông [Museum of Hair] by Maik Cây, a daring and intimate novel told in eight kaleidoscopic stories. Entrants are asked to submit a translation of a chosen extract from the book along with a 500-word translator’s note. We welcome all translators from Vietnamese who have not yet published a full-length literary translation to enter via the link here.

The prize closed on February 1, 2026. The shortlist and winner will be announced in early March 2026.

The full terms and conditions can be found here.

The extract to be translated is here. It is taken from the story ‘Phía tây thất thủ,’ published in full by Tuổi Trẻ Cuối Tuần.

___

The Book

The winning translator will receive a $6400 / £4800 commission to translate Bảo Tàng Lông by Maik Cây, to be published by Peirene Press (UK) and Two Lines Press (US) in 2027.

Bảo Tàng Lông [Museum of Hair] by Maik Cây is a daring and intimate novel centered on a fictional queer foremother: the reclusive artist Trần Bích Băng. When she dies, her abandoned apartment unveils a secret archive of women’s hair, each strand a memory of desire and connection. Across eight kaleidoscopic tales told by those drawn into her orbit—from a granddaughter tracing an inheritance of art and madness, to a trespasser uncovering her secrets—Băng emerges as writer, lover, prophet, and digital ghost. Inventive, haunting, and deeply tender, this visionary work explores memory, exile, and the power of storytelling to resurrect what has been erased.

The Mentorship

This year’s winner will work with established literary translator Nguyễn An Lý (Chinatown and Elevator in Sài Gòn by Thuận and Water: A Chronicle by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư). An Lý will offer the winning translator feedback and advice throughout the translation process and support them as they embark on their first full-length literary translation.

The Retreat

An 18th-century mill house in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. The house comfortably sleeps 5 or 6 and comes fully equipped, including a large garden with a natural swimming pond. The closest village is a 10-minute walk from the retreat. Stay at the retreat is free and covered by the Stevns Translation Prize; travel expenses will be covered up to $1,000.

2026 Judges

Nguyễn An Lý

Nguyễn An Lý lives in Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam. Her translations into Vietnamese include works by Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, J. L. Borges, Amos Oz, and the poetry in The Lord of the Rings. She won English PEN Translates Awards for Chinatown (Tilted Axis Press, 2022) and Elevator in Sài Gòn (Tilted Axis Press, 2024) by Thuận, and Water: A Chronicle (Major Books, 2024) by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư. Chinatown also won the 2023 ALTA National Translation Award in Prose and was the runner-up of the 2023 TA First Translation Prize. She co-founded and co-publishes the independent online Zzz Review (on hiatus) and ZNZ Publishing.

Vi Khi Nao

Vi Khi Nao is the author of seven poetry collections, the short-story collection A Brief Alphabet of Torture (winner of the 2016 FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize), and the novel Swimming with Dead Stars. Her poetry collection The Old Philosopher won the Nightboat Books Prize for Poetry in 2014. Her book Suicide: the Autoimmune Disorder of the Psyche was published by 11:11. She was the Fall 2019 fellow at the Black Mountain Institute, and her work includes poetry, fiction, film, and cross-genre collaboration. She was the 2022 recipient of the Jim Duggins PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize.

Deborah Smith

Deborah Smith studied Korean literature at SOAS. She has translated several books by Han Kang and Bae Suah. From 2015 to 2022 she published translations from across Asia at Tilted Axis Press. After five years in north India, she recently moved back to Doncaster, her hometown.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse