Today, the National Book Foundation unveiled the longlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Translated Literature. Ten titles earned a place on the list from a pool of 159 works submitted by their publishers. This year’s panel for Translated Literature comprises Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Javier García del Moral, John Keene, Christopher Merrill (Chair), and Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi.
The finalists across all categories will be announced on Tuesday, October 6, and the winners will be celebrated at the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony on November 18.
In the meantime, here is the 2026 longlist for Translated Literature:
Egana Djabbarova, My Dreadful Body
Translated from the Russian by Lisa C. Hayden
New Vessel Press
Álvaro Enrigue, Now I Surrender
Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
Karim Kattan, Eden at Dawn
Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Restless Books
Karl Ove Knausgaard, The School of Night
Translated from the Norwegian by Martin Aitken
Penguin Press / Penguin Random House
Ping Lu, To the East of the East
Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang
World Editions
Vicente Luis Mora, Centroeuropa
Translated from the Spanish by Rahul Bery
Bellevue Literary Press
Intan Paramaditha, Night of a Thousand Hells
Translated from the Indonesian by Stephen Epstein and Tiffany Tsao
Europa Editions
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Pure Men
Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud
Other Press
Maria Stepanova, The Disappearing Act
Translated from the Russian by Sasha Dugdale
New Directions Publishing
Samar Yazbek, Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life: Voices of Survival and Witness in Gaza
Translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
Other Press
