International Prize for Literature 2026: Prize for Contemporary Literatures in Translation

This year's jury for the International Prize for Literature consists of: Joy Denalane, Maha El Hissy, Paula Fürstenberg, Hannes Langendörfer, Melody Makeda Ledwon, Cia Rinne, and Senthuran Varatharajah.   

The shortlist will be announced on 20 May. The celebration of the shortlist and award ceremony take place on 3 July at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW).

The International Prize for Literature is awarded for the eighteenth time in 2026. It honours an outstanding work of contemporary international literature and its first translation into German. This dual focus makes it unique in the German award landscape.

The International Prize for Literature concentrates on heterogeneous forms of contemporary narration and foregrounds the relationships between texts and realities as well as the dialogue between different cultures and languages. By focusing on translations, it aims to overcome national canonizations and limited understandings of the literary and thus takes into account the current conditions of literary creation in a world shaped by diverse cultural interdependencies.

Since 2023, German first translations of international poetry can also be submitted. The International Prize for Literature is endowed with 35,000 euros (20,000 euros for the author, 15,000 euros for the translator).

The list of previous winners is a testament to the richness of contemporary literature worldwide and the productivity of literary translation in the German-speaking world.

The Jury 2026

Joy Denalane is a soul and R&B singer. She grew up as the daughter of a South African father and a German mother. She had her breakthrough in 1999 with the duet Mit Dir with the band Freundeskreis. On her debut album Mamani (2002), she combined soul, R&B, and South African influences with German lyrics, thus creating a new genre. Her album Let Yourself Be Loved (2020) was released on Motown Records, making her the first German artist on that label. Denalane's music combines her cultural roots, identity, and social awareness.

Maha El Hissy is a freelance literary scholar, curator, and presenter. She travels between countries and continents and has taught modern German literature in Cairo, Munich, London, and New York. As a critic, she writes for Berlin Review and Deutschlandfunk Kultur, among others. She is the editor of the book Die ganze Geschichte fasse ich an der Hand. Literatur und Kunst zur Einwanderung ins Nachkriegsdeutschland (2025). She is also the curator of the Arabic-language podcast series Ne7ki (2025) and the literary series Vorzeichen (2024). El Hissy lives and works in Berlin.

Paula Fürstenberg is a writer. She studied at the Swiss Literature Institute and Humboldt University. Her debut novel, Familie der geflügelten Tiger, was published in 2016 and translated into French. Her second novel, Weltalltage, followed in 2024. She has received numerous grants for her work, most recently from Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and the German Literature Fund. She writes prose and essays, works as a curator, teacher, and editor, and is part of various artistic collectives. Fürstenberg lives and works in Berlin. 

Hannes Langendörfer is a literary translator and presenter. He translates fiction, poetry, and plays, including works by Madame Nielsen, Søren Ulrik Thomsen, and Stine Pilgaard into German. In 2022 and 2023, he was a member of the jury for the REBEKKA Translation Prize. Langendörfer lives and works in Berlin. 

Melody Makeda Ledwon is a translator, interpreter, and editor. She translates into German and English and has published the co-translations Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 (2024) and Angela Davis: An Autobiography (2023). For her translation of Simoné Goldschmidt-Lechner’s novel Messer, Zungen (2022), she received the Words Without Borders Momentum Scholarship in 2025; excerpts from this translation appeared in World Literature Today and The Common. Ledwon is fiction editor at the literature and art magazine SAND and lives and works in Berlin.

Cia Rinne is a poet and artist. She studied philosophy and languages in Frankfurt, Helsinki and Athens and is the author of concrete, minimalist, and multilingual poetry such as sentences (2019) and l’usage du mot (2017), as well as libretti such as Wasting my Grammar (2024) for the Ensemble Neue Vocalsolisten. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums, most recently in 2025 at the Rauma Art Museum and in 2024 at the Marabouparken konsthall in Stockholm. Her work was awarded the Prix littéraire Bernard Heidsieck-Centre Pompidou. She is a 2026 Fleck Fellow at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Rinne lives and works in Berlin.

Senthuran Varatharajah studied philosophy, Protestant theology, and comparative religious and cultural studies in Marburg, Berlin, and London. His first novel, Vor der Zunahme der Zeichen, was published in 2016. His second novel, Rot (Hunger), was published in 2022. Varatharajah’s novels were published by S. Fischer Verlag and have received numerous awards. He lives in Berlin.

Press photos: hkw.de/pressphotos 

Submissions

Until 20 January 2026, publishers of international literature in German translation could nominate up to three titles. 71 publishers submitted 130 books translated into German from 30 languages. An independent jury first nominates a shortlist from all submissions and then selects the prize duo of author and translator in a second step.

Dates

Wed., 20 May, Announcement of the shortlist

Fri., 3 July, Celebration of the shortlist and award ceremony at HKW

More information: hkw.de/en/literaturpreis

Partner

The International Prize for Literature is awarded by Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) and the foundation Elementarteilchen (Hamburg).

Visiting Information

Opening Times
Wed.–Mon. 12:00–19:00

Current information about visiting and accessibility.

Childcare
HKW offers free childcare during many of its programmes. For further information visit hkw.de.
  
Weltwirtschaft Restaurant is open daily from 12:00.

Contact

Maxie Fischer
Head of Press and Communications
Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin

­­­­T: + 49 (0) 30 397 87 413
presse@hkw.de