Kashmiri Novel Wins 2025 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation
Mohan Gulrajani
For the First Time, a Kashmiri Novel Crosses Borders, Wins Global Spotlight
It’s a breakthrough moment for a language long left out of the global literary conversation.
Representational Photo
By Iqbal Bhat
It’s not often a novel written in Kashmiri reaches the global stage. But on June 16, that changed.
At the Himal Southasian Fiction Fest, a big announcement was made. The 1975 novel To Each Their Own Hell by Akhtar Mohiuddin won a top prize. It was translated into English by Mehdi Khawaja.
The prize, only in its third year, honours translations that bring lesser-heard voices from South Asia to English-speaking readers.
This is the first time it has gone to awork written in Kashmiri, and, likely, the first time a Kashmiri novel will be published in English in the United States.
For a language as rich in literature as Kashmiri, and as historically ignored by global publishing, the moment is seismic.
“This book is a taut, compelling meditation on love, and its absence,” said Daisy Rockwell, a juror. “In Mehdi Khwaja’s compelling translation, the propulsive voice of the narrative immediately grabs the reader’s attention and won’t let go.”
Rockwell, an International Booker–winning translator, compared Mohiuddin’s novel to Sartre’s No Exit and Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, with the pacing of a dark thriller.
Akhtar Mohiuddin
Written nearly fifty years ago, Akhtar Mohiuddin’s novel is a deep and unsettling story about emptiness and longing. The characters—X, Sheen, Daisy, Nancy—move through a strange, blurry world where nothing feels real. Not much happens in the plot, but the feeling it leaves stays with you.
Khawaja’s translation brings that strange, heavy mood to life with simple, powerful writing.
He’s a freelance journalist and editor, and he’s also taught Kashmiri literature at Ashoka University.
Born in 1928, Akhtar Mohiuddin is a towering literary figure of Kashmir. He wrote the first novel in the language—Dod Dag, or Disease and Pain—and in 1968 was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honours.
But in 1984, he returned the award in protest after the hanging of Kashmiri separatist leader Maqbool Bhat. He died in 2001. Many of his works remain unpublished, locked in drawers and family archives.
Khawaja’s translation might be the first to break that lock.
Mehdi Khawaja
Backed by Armory Square Ventures, a tech venture firm in upstate New York, the prize Khawaja received was created to address a glaring gap in the American publishing landscape.
Despite being spoken by more than a fifth of the world’s population, South Asian languages make up less than 1 percent of all translated literature published in the United States. Only 64 such books were published in the last ten years.
This year’s prize jury, chaired by Jason Grunebaum, included some of the most respected names in literary translation—Rockwell, Sugi Ganeshananthan, Padma Viswanathan, Arunava Sinha, and Deena Chalabi.
The five shortlisted works spanned Hindi, Tamil, Sinhala, and Kashmiri, and moved between bustling South Asian cities and the serene pockets of Europe. Themes ranged from political unrest to familial memory.
Saigon Puducherry, a Tamil novel translated by Subhashree Beeman, received a Special Jury Mention for its emotional depth. All five finalists will have excerpts published later this year by Words Without Borders, offering readers an early glimpse into their worlds.
But it’s Khawaja’s work that will go the furthest.
Open Letter Books, a press based at the University of Rochester, will publish To Each Their Own Hell in 2027.
Besides, Khawaja’s winning translation, other shortlisted works included Badalta Hua Desh by Manoj Kumar Pandey translated from Hindi by Punarvasu Joshi, Grandmothers, Granddaughters and Other Women by Kumudu Kumarasinghe translated from Sinhala by Ciara Mendis, and Moumin (or The Believer and Other Stories) by Shobasakthi translated from Tamil by Sumathy Sivamohan. These selections demonstrate the jury’s commitment to recognising a wide range of voices and forms, from short story collections to full-length novels.
The jury was chaired by Jason Grunebaum and included notable literary translators and scholars such as Deena Chalabi, VV Ganeshananthan, Daisy Rockwell, Arunava Sinha, Padma Viswanathan, and Pia Sawhney. Their deliberations were guided by the quality of the translation, the literary significance of the original work, and the need to give visibility to under-translated languages.
“This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first Kashmiri novel to be published in English in the U.S.,” said Chad W. Post, who runs Three Percent, a site that tracks literary translation. “It’s a powerful start.”
Professor (Dr.) M. L. Gulrajani F.S.D.C. (UK)
Former Professor and Dean (I.R&D), IIT Delhi
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