Muse India announced its shortlist for the Translation Award 2025.

The prize received 104 entries across 18 Indian languages and 11 literary genres from 22 publishers. According to the prize, in this year’s shortlist, preference has been given to “lesser-known authors and translators”. It said that one of the objectives is to bring to the limelight the works of writers who have “yet to gain wide recognition”. The books were evaluated by 11 scholars and writers from across India.

Here is this year’s shortlist:

  1. A Game of Fire, Nanak Singh, translated from the Punjabi by Navdeep Suri, HarperCollins India

  2. A Pulp Fiction Textbook, VM Devadas, translated from the Malayalam by the author, Hachette India

  3. Beggar’s Bedlam, Nabarun Bhattacharya, translated from the Bengali by Rijula Das, Seagull Books

  4. Kurinji Malar, Na Parthasarathy, translated from the Tamil by Malini Seshadri, Hachette India

  5. Lavanya Devi, Kusum Khemani, translated from the Hindi by Banibrata Mahanta, Orient Black Swan

  6. That’s A Fire-Ant Right There!, Mohammed Khadeer Babu, translated from the Telugu by DV Subhasri, Speaking Tiger Books

  7. The Bitter-Fruit Tree, Prakash Parienkar, translated from the Konkani by Vidya Pai, Niyogi Books

  8. The Last Bench, Adhir Biswas, translated from the Bengali by V Ramaswamy, Westland

  9. The World is Made-up Every Day, Alok Dhanwa, translated from the Hindi by Saudamini Deo, Seagull Books

  10. This Too is a Story, Mannu Bhandari, translated from the Hindi by Poonam Saxena, Penguin Random House India