Announcing the Third Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation
January 17, 2025
SKANEATELES, NEW YORK: Today, we are proud to announce the opening of the third Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation. This annual jury-selected prize awards a talented literary translator with the publication of their book to bring a work in a South Asian language to English.
Launched in July 2022, the Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation is an annual 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. The groundbreaking prize, sponsored by Armory Square Ventures, is the first of its kind worldwide.
All shortlisted translators will have an excerpt from their work published at Words Without Borders, the premier online magazine for literature in translation. The winning work will be published by Open Letter Press.
The 2024 winner was Sana R. Chaudry for her translation from Urdu of Pakistani feminist icon Fahmida Riaz’s final novel, Qila-e-Faramoshi (Fortress of the Forgotten Ones). To date, translators recognized by the prize shortlist have worked in Angika, Assamese, Bangla, Hindi, Sri Lankan Tamil, and Urdu, highlighting the breadth of cultural diversity across South Asia.
Pia Sawhney is partner and co-founder of Armory Square Ventures and is co-founder of the Armory Square prize. She noted:
Despite the wealth and significance of literary work in South Asian languages, there have traditionally been limited investments associated with translating that canon into English. Judging from the stellar nature of submissions we have received over the past two years, it is clear there is vast opportunity and potential in the world of South Asian literature that continues to go unheralded and unrealized across the publishing industry. We could not be prouder to be advocates, curators, founders, writers and entrepreneurs invested in elevating and mentoring artists in this arena. Our understanding is that the landscape and appetite for writing in this domain is growing and growing rapidly.
Originally from Buffalo, jury chair Jason Grunebaum is a literary translator from Hindi and an instructional professor at the University of Chicago. He is a translator of Manzoor Ahtesham and Uday Prakash, among other Hindi writers, teaches both Hindi and literary translation. He the co-director of the UChicago-based SALT Project to support and promote South Asian literature in translation. Grunebaum steers the jury’s deliberations but also aids writers and translators in improving and refining their literary translation and writing skills.
Grunebaum is also co-founder of the prize. He added:
We have been fortunate since we launched the prize to collaborate with two accomplished and extraordinary juries. Our prize is building bridges of the future between readers from the United States and those from Asia. This year, we eagerly await the next crop of finalists to our burgeoning community. Our jury has, in past years, enjoyed reading stimulating entries and partnering meaningfully with the winning writers.
As in past years, this year’s prize jury brings together award-winning specialists in literary translation. Several jurors have served with us before. This year, we welcome two award-winning English language fiction writers, V.V. Ganeshananthan and Padma Viswanathan, to the fold. Viswanathan is also a translator from Portuguese.
The complete list of judges is below (in alphabetical order):
Deena Chalabi: recognized curator whose work explores relationships between individual expression, critical thought, and public imagination. Literary work published in Bidoun, The New Inquiry and the Journal of Visual Culture.
V.V. Ganeshananthan: board member of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, NEA grant recipient, winner of the Carol Shields Prize, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Jason Grunebaum (Jury Chair), translator from Hindi: shortlisted for DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, winner of an NEA Literature Fellowship in Translation, winner of a PEN/Heim Translation Fund grant.
Daisy Rockwell, translator from Hindi and Urdu: 2022 International Booker winner, winner of MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize.
Pia Sawhney, Partner, Armory Square Ventures: Previous winner of the Amnesty International DOEN Award for Human Rights for work as a documentary filmmaker and journalist.
Arunava Sinha, translator from Bangla: Winner of 2022 Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award, twice winner of Crossword translation award, shortlisted for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, shortlisted for the National Translation Award.
Padma Viswanathan, translator from Portuguese: NEA grant recipient, shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, PEN Center USA Fiction Prize finalist, shortlisted for the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
The prize jury will first and foremost consider the quality of the translation, paying particular attention to the creative and artful solutions that the translator has used to address the translation challenges posed by the work. The jury will also consider the significance of the original work and its author, and the extent to which the language and author are underrepresented in English.
The prize is open to translators of literature written by a South Asian author in a language other than English. Any book-length work of narrative prose, fiction, or nonfiction, by a South Asian author (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives or the diaspora) will be eligible.
The deadline for applications is April 1, 2025. The shortlist and winner will be announced in Spring 2025.
Information and application instructions are here.
About Armory Square Ventures in Skaneateles, New York
Armory Square Ventures (ASV) is a diverse, leading technology venture capital firm that strives to be a community catalyst for secondary markets and cities. The firm is focused on investing in early-stage software companies in Upstate New York and adjacent regions across the Northeast and Midwest. As such, we are an optimism engine for ecosystems outside of Silicon Valley, supporting B2B and tech-enabled software startups to source talent, resources and capital. Our focus lies in places overlooked by other investors.
The fund’s investments include ACV Auctions (NASDAQ: ACVA), Agronomic Technology Corporation (acquired by Yara), BosonQ Psi, BentoBox CMS (acquired by Fiserv), Compyl, Clerio Vision, Good Uncle (acquired by Aramark), Heretto, Machinery Partner, Multiplayer, Qualifi, Squarefoot, StorySlab, Vengo Labs, Vizbee, UCM Digital, 8B and Moxie. For more information about the prize, contact Regan Hofmann at regan@armorysv.com.
About Open Letter Books in Rochester, New York
Open Letter—the University of Rochester's nonprofit, literary translation press—is one of only a handful of publishing houses dedicated to increasing access to world literature for English readers. Publishing ten titles in translation each year and running an online literary website called Three Percent, Open Letter searches for works that are extraordinary and influential, works that we hope will become the classics of tomorrow.