Cercador Prize 2026: Ten Finalists for Literature in Translation

The Cercador Prize announced ten finalists for its 2026 award yesterday, with the winning work of literature in translation to be named on November 16 and its translator awarded $1,000.

The prize is unusual among literary awards: independent booksellers across the United States select the winner. This year's committee is chaired by Pierce Alquist of Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, Massachusetts. She is joined by:

• Sophie Chen of Belmont Books (Belmont, MA)
• Mikayla Bryant of Books Are Magic (Brooklyn, NY)
• Lou Barcott of Myopic Books (Chicago, IL)
• James Webster of Recluse Books (Fort Worth, TX)

Who made the 2026 shortlist?

The ten finalists span eight source languages — French, Norwegian, Dutch, Bulgarian, Russian, Catalan, Chinese and Swedish — and ten publishers:

• Antoine Volodine, The Monroe Girls, translated from the French by Alyson Waters (Archipelago)
• Vigdis Hjorth, Repetition, translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund (Verso Fiction)
• Anjet Daanje, The Song of Stork and Dromedary, translated from the Dutch by David McKay (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Rene Karabash, She Who Remains, translated from the Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (Sandorf Passage)
• Karim Kattan, Eden At Dawn, translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman (Restless Books)
• Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Pure Men, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud (Other Press)
• Egana Djabbarova, My Dreadful Body, translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden (New Vessel Press)
• Irene Solà, Dams, translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem (Graywolf Press)
• Dorothy Tse, City Like Water, translated from the Chinese by Natascha Bruce (Graywolf Press)
• Balsam Karam, Event Horizon, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel (Feminist Press)

What is at stake for translators?

The $1,000 prize goes to the translator of the winning book, not to the original author — a structure that keeps the focus on the craft the award exists to recognize. The shortlist itself functions as a bookseller-curated reading guide, one assembled by five people who sell these titles directly to readers.

Graywolf Press lands two finalists this year, with Solà's Dams and Tse's City Like Water both translated for the Minneapolis-based publisher. French leads the source languages with three entries, including Volodine's The Monroe Girls and Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's Pure Men.

The winner will be revealed on November 16, giving readers two months to work through a list that stretches from Norwegian autofiction to Catalan and Chinese experimental prose.