Lisa Dillman received the 2025 Translation Prize for her English translation of Season of the Swamp by Mexican author Yuri Herrera

Gwendolyn Harper Wins Runner-Up Prize for her translation of Pedro Lemebel’s A Last Supper of Queer Apostles: Selected Essays

Lisa Dillman received the 2025 Translation Prize for her English translation of Season of the Swamp by Mexican author Yuri Herrera, published by Graywolf Press.

Selected from an exceptional shortlist featuring works by Pedro Lemebel, Alejandro Zambra, María Bastarós, and Munir Hachemi—and translations by renowned translators Megan McDowell, Kevin Gerry Dunn, Julia Sanches, and Gwendolyn Harper—Dillman’s winning work impressed the jury with its remarkable literary quality, linguistic precision, and the longstanding collaboration between Dillman and Herrera. As the jury noted: “Dillman’s translation captures the inventiveness and joy of Herrera’s language, rendering it in playful English that mirrors the original, turning ojalateros into anyluckers […]”. 

Lisa Dillman accepted the award: “I am so happy and honored to receive this award, to be in the company of so many translators I’ve read and admire, both on the shortlist and on the jury. Thank you very much to the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, the judges, and obviously to Yuri Herrera for writing Season of the Swamp.”

During the ceremony, translator Heather Cleary, a member of the jury and winner of the Translation Prize in 2024, presented the finalists on the shortlist for the 2025 Translation Prize. In this edition, the jury decided to award a Runner-Up prize to the translator Gwendolyn Harper for her translation of Pedro Lemebel’s A Last Supper of Queer Apostles: Selected Essays.

The program featured a conversation with the Translation Prize winner, Lisa Dillman, and runner-up Gwendolyn Harper, and jury member Charlotte Whittle, followed by an audience Q&A and a Spanish cocktail reception. The roundtable discussion addressed the new challenges translators face in the age of AI, which underscored the irreplaceable value of human sensibility, creativity, and cultural insight in literary translation.

Shortlist for the 2025 QSSI Translation Prize:  

• Childish Literature by Alejandro Zambra translated by Megan McDowell published by Penguin Random House /Penguin Books
• A Last Supper of Queer Apostles: Selected Essays by Pedro Lemebel translated by Gwendolyn Harper published by Penguin Classics
• Hungry for What by María Bastarós translated by Kevin Gerry Dunn. published by Daunt Publishing
• Living Things by Munir Hachemi translated by Julia Sanches published by Coach House Books
• Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera translated by Lisa Dillman published by Graywolf Press

About the Translation Prize:

With the goal of raising awareness and engendering appreciation for literature in Spanish in the United States, this $10,000 prize was created by the Cultural Committee and Board of Directors of the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, recognizing the best translation into English of a literary work written in Spanish. Previously a triennial prize, it is now awarded annually. The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize Reading Committee is made up of a minimum of three experts with experience in Spanish and/or Latin American literature, translation, culture and/or language. This year’s Reading Committee was comprised of translation experts, including committee chair and founding editor and chair of the Words Without Borders organization’s board of trustees, Samantha Schnee; translator Charlotte Whittle, 2023 winner; and Amalia Gladhart, professor at the University of Oregon, 2022 winner.

About the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute:

The QSSI is a New York-based nonprofit corporation founded in 1954 by a group of American Hispanophiles who sought to stimulate American interest in the art, culture, customs, language, literature and history of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.  The QSSI keeps this vision current by striving to share the contributions of the Spanish-speakers to the history and culture of the United States and by showcasing the excellence of the Spanish-speaking world in numerous fields so that lasting ties of friendship may be formed, mutual understanding promoted, and bonds of peace strengthened.