SEPTEMBER 4, 2026 — Only one title translated from Arabic was on the longlists for the 2026 National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose, announced yesterday: I Have Brought You a Severed Hand by Ghayath Almadhoun, translated by Catherine Cobham and published by Action Books.
This year’s prose judges are Addie Leak, Eva Apelqvist, Hanna Leliv, N Kalyan Raman, and Priscilla Layne. This year’s judges for poetry are Karen Kovacik, Karen Leeder, and Robyn Creswell.
The award shortlists are set to be announced on October 6, and the winners on October 23, at an awards ceremony at the American Literary Translators Association’s annual conference.
Of Madhoun’s book, the judges said:
Ghayath Almadhoun’s I Have Brought You a Severed Hand are war poems for the twentieth-first century, full of rage and wit and terrible truths. He writes of the violence in Syria from the frontlines of immigration in Europe—from self-satisfied Stockholm and the artsy precincts of Berlin—and he brings the news that no one wants to hear. “I have brought you cities destroyed on top of their inhabitants so you can reconstruct them,” “I have brought you sarin gas so you can breathe deeply.” The translations of Catherine Cobham move fluidly among the many registers of the Arabic: argument and aphorism, surreal imagery and searing analysis.
The complete longlists:
The National Translation Award in Poetry longlist (in alphabetical order by title):
The Figure Outward by Jean Daive, translated from French by Kevin Holden, published by Black Square Editions
Girl with a Bullet: Selected Poems by Anna Malihon, translated from Ukrainian by Olena Jennings, published by World Poetry Books
I Have Brought You a Severed Hand by Ghayath Almadhoun, translated from Arabic by Catherine Cobham, published by Action Book
If Only For A Moment (I’ll Never Be Young Again) by Jaime Gil de Biedma, translated from Spanish by James Nolan, published by Fonograf Editions
[Incognita Flora Cuscatlanica] by Elena Salamanca, translated from Spanish by Ryan Greene, published by La Impresora
The Minotaur’s Daughter: Selected Poems by Eva Luka, translated from Slovak by James Sutherland-Smith, published by Seagull Books
Ovid Void by Maria Stepanova and Eugene Ostashevsky, translated from Russian by Eugene Ostashevksy, published by World Poetry Books
Poet in the New World by Czesław Miłosz, translated from Polish by Robert Hass and David Frick, published by Ecco
The Ruins by Ye Hui, translated from Chinese by Dong Li, published by Phoneme (Deep Vellum)
Touché by Pascalle Monnier, translated from French by Cole Swensen, published by Green Linden Press
Unnameable by Anna Gual, translated from Catalan by AKaiser, published by Zephyr Press
The National Translation Award in Prose longlist (in alphabetical order by title):
Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski, translated from Norwegian by Nichola Smalley, published by Hamish Hamilton
The Calf by Leif Høghaug, translated from Norwegian by David M. Smith, published by Fum d’Estampa
Cécé by Emmelie Prophète, translated from French by Aidan Rooney, published by Archipelago Books
The Front by Edimilson de Almeida Pereira, translated from Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz, published by Sundial House
Hunter by Shuang Zuetao, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, published by Granta Magazine Editions
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà, translated from Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem, published by Graywolf Press
Into the Sun by C.F. Ramuz, translated from French by Emma Ramadan and Olivia Baes, published by New Directions
Mending Bodies by Hon Lai Chu, translated from Chinese by Jacqueline Leung, published by Two Lines Press
Mothers by Brenda Lozano, translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary, published by Catapult Book Group
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson, published by HopeRoad
Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann, translated from Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen, published by New Directions
When You Listen to This Song by Lola Lafon, translated from French by Laura Elkin, published by Yale University Press