Mara Faye Lethem, Shuang Xuetao and Lola Lafon longlisted for the 2026 National Translation Awards

Three books written or translated by RCW clients have been longlisted for the 2026 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Prose: 
I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà, translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem;
Hunter by Shuang Xuetao, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang;
When You Listen to This Song by Lola Lafon, translated from the French by Lauren Elkin.

This year marks the 28th year for the NTA, and the 12th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The 2026 longlists feature authors writing in 12 different languages and books from 21 different presses, celebrating the diversity of literature in translation in English and the large, vibrant community of translators, publishers and readers. This year’s prose judges are Addie Leak, Eva Apelqvist, Hanna Leliv, N Kalyan Raman, and Priscilla Layne. 

Read what the judges said about these three books below:

I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà, translated by Mara Faye Lethem
"Replete with folktale, false piety, and real darkness, Irene Solà’s vibrant novel takes place in an old farmhouse in the Catalonian mountains, where an old woman lies dying. The novel jumps in time through hundreds of years as it recounts the stories of the family’s women: the matriarch who made a Faustian deal for a husband only to trick the devil, and the ensuing generations of fallout. Meanwhile, these same women, now ghosts, wait (im)patiently for the last of their party. Mara Faye Lethem’s translation is earthy and lyrical, and she renders the women’s ribald stories into knee-slappingly funny English."

Hunter by Shuang Xuetao, translated by Jeremy Tiang
"Written in the Dongbei dialect of Northeastern China, the stories in Shuang Xuetao’s Hunter paint a portrait of a region marked by gritty pragmatism, dark humor, and magical realism. The main characters are often creatives, sometimes factory workers, many of them recluses who have relinquished all personal ties. Translator Jeremy Tiang has expertly translated Shuang’s often inventive, utterly unique description; his English texts are layered and witty. The collection captures a changing world, one that seems to both relish and reject outside influence: myth taking center stage even as machine guns take the place of swords and globalism that of empire."

When You Listen to This Song by Lola Lafon, translated by Lauren Elkin
"In When You Listen to This Song, award-winning French writer Lola Lafon reflects on identity, difference, hatred, and memory through the lens of Anne Frank’s legacy. In 2021, Lafon spent a night in the Amsterdam Annex where Frank and her family hid from the Nazis. Blending biographical details, personal reflections, and the history of Anne Frank’s diary, Lafon examines its global impact, political uses, and occasional censorship. She argues against reducing Frank to a symbol of victimhood, instead emphasizing her complexity and insisting that her diary be read not only as testimony but also as a significant literary work."