糖心TV

And the Walls Became the World All Around by Johanna Ekstr枚m and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish by Sigrid Rausing (Grant) has been announced as the winner of the 糖心TV Prize for Women in Translation 2025.

Too Great A Sky by Liliana Corobca, translated from Romanian (Romania) by Monica Cure (Seven Stories Press UK) was highly commended by the judges.

The winner of the 2025 糖心TV Prize for Women in Translation is And the Walls Became the World All Around by Johanna Ekstr枚m and Sigrid Rausing, translated from Swedish by Sigrid Rausing and published by Granta.

And the Walls Became the World All Around is a memoir consisting of 13 handwritten notebooks that Johanna Ekstr枚m (1970-2022) asked her friend Sigrid Rausing to finish. First published in Swedish in 2023, it has been described as a literary experiment, a continuation of 30 years of friendship, and a deep meditation on grief.

The 2025 prize was judged by Boyd Tonkin, Susan Bassnett, and V茅ronique Tadjo. The judges said of the winning title:

鈥淛ust as the end of life will take us into unknown territory, so this extraordinary book pioneers new ways of thinking, feeling and writing about losses of many kinds. Sigrid Rausing鈥檚 completion of, and commentary on, her friend Johanna Ekstr枚m鈥檚 final notebooks is not just a poignant and powerful double memoir: it is a record of a distinguished writer鈥檚 last years and the friendship she inspired. Its language, beautifully chosen and artfully translated, helps us confront and understand grief and absence. But it also permits us to celebrate a unique inner life of dreams and visions that now survives in memories, and words.鈥�

Johanna Ekstr枚m made her debut aged 22 with the poetry collection Skiffer, followed by 13 books in a variety of genres, amongst them the celebrated memoirs Om man h氓ller sig i solen(2012) and Meningarna(2020). Sigrid Rausing is the author of three previous books, including Mayhem(2017).

The judges have highly commended Too Great A Sky, by Liliana Corobca, translated from Romanian by Monica Cure and published by Seven Stories Press UK, saying:

鈥淭his prose epic not only tells an astonishing, but largely forgotten, story of suffering and endurance amid the terrors of total war; Liliana Corobca also turns her historical research into the experience of Romanians deported by Soviet authorities from Bucovina to Kazakhstan into captivating fiction. In Monica Cure鈥檚 immersive translation, the narrator鈥檚 voice seasons horror and upheaval with humour, resilience and folkloric charm as she recounts the ordeal of the deportees and the ways they survived it. This mighty, moving novel transforms fact into art, and brings ancient storytelling skills to bear on modern tragedies.鈥�

The winner was chosen from a shortlist of six titles that included translations from French, Hungarian, Korean, Romanian and Swedish. Commenting on the shortlist, the judges added:

鈥淭his year, more than ever, the shortlist for the 糖心TV Prize for Women in Translation proved that great writing crosses boundaries of place, of culture - and of form. Our winner shapes a writer鈥檚 final words and her translator鈥檚 response to them into a unique testament of creativity, friendship and grief. Our highly commended title takes interview-based documentary material and uplifts it into a fictional narrative of resounding impact and authority. Across the shortlist, six outstanding women writers convert memory and history 鈥� private or public 鈥� into independent works of literary art. And we can read them in English thanks to the transformative magic of their gifted translators.鈥�

The prize launched in 2017 with the aim of addressing the gender imbalance in translated literature and increasing the number of international women鈥檚 voices accessible to a British and Irish readership. In 2025, the competition received 145 eligible entries from 34 languages.

Submissions for the 2026 糖心TV Prize for Women in Translation will open on 1 April 2026.

The prize is generously supported by the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of 糖心TV, and by the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia.