Announcing the 2026 Stevns Translation Prize Winner
Two Lines(opens in a new tab) and Peirene Press(opens in a new tab) are pleased to announce that Ally Le is the winner of the 2026 Stevns Translation Prize. Ally Le’s translation of Maik Cây’s Bảo Tàng Lông [Museum of Hair] will be published by both presses, in the US and UK, in 2027.
Translating this excerpt, to me, can be described in short as ‘a queer translator translating a queer meltdown.’ I had a blast brainstorming ways of translating the siblings’ respective mental breakdowns and queer kinship. —Ally Le, winner of the 2026 Stevns Translation Prize
Ally Le (she/they) is a historian, writer, poet and translator working between Hong Kong and Vietnam. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature and Hong Kong Studies from the University of Hong Kong, and is reading for an MPhil in childhood history in French colonial Vietnam at her alma mater. Ally speaks Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, some French, and translates between Vietnamese, Chinese, and English. In 2025, she was the recipient of a Residential Bursary to attend the British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT) Summer School at the University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK). Her creative writings and translations have appeared on Zzz Review (on hiatus), Mekong Review, Art Nation, Canto Cutie, The Primer,The Newsletter of the IIAS (Leiden University), and forthcoming elsewhere.
Congratulations to the finalists: Lukas Tuyết Tùng, Nguyễn Thị Bích Trâm, and Chau Anh Nguyễn.
The co-publisher at Peirene Press, James Tookey, shares how impressed the judges were by the entries:
“This was a difficult text to bring into English, bringing together different registers and tones, being at some points intensely lyrical and other times blunt. The extensive use of literary quotation, particularly the author’s practice of lây Kiêu, employing quotations and references from The Tale of Kiều, offered a particular challenge to entrants.”
According to Tookey, entries that preserved the liveliness of the siblings’ dialogue and the theatrical pulse of the extract stood out, as did translator’s notes that reflected deeply on the text’s particular demands.
The Book
The winning translator will receive a $6400 / £4800 commission to translate Bảo Tàng Lông by Maik Cây, to be published by Peirene Press (UK) and Two Lines Press (US) in 2027.
Bảo Tàng Lông [Museum of Hair] by Maik Cây is a daring and intimate novel centered on a fictional queer foremother: the reclusive artist Trần Bích Băng. When she dies, her abandoned apartment unveils a secret archive of women’s hair, each strand a memory of desire and connection. Across eight kaleidoscopic tales told by those drawn into her orbit—from a granddaughter tracing an inheritance of art and madness, to a trespasser uncovering her secrets—Băng emerges as writer, lover, prophet, and digital ghost. Inventive, haunting, and deeply tender, this visionary work explores memory, exile, and the power of storytelling to resurrect what has been erased.
The Mentorship
This year’s winner will work with established literary translator Nguyễn An Lý (Chinatown and Elevator in Sài Gòn by Thuận and Water: A Chronicle by Nguyễn Ngọc Tư). An Lý will offer the winning translator feedback and advice throughout the translation process and support them as they embark on their first full-length literary translation.
The Retreat
An 18th-century mill house in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. The house comfortably sleeps 5 or 6 and comes fully equipped, including a large garden with a natural swimming pond. The closest village is a 10-minute walk from the retreat. Stay at the retreat is free and covered by the Stevns Translation Prize; travel expenses will be covered up to $1,000.
2024:
Text: Zee Nu by Eva Meijer (Dutch)
Winner: Anne Thompson Melo, Sea Now(opens in a new tab)
Finalists: Michael Blass, Jake Goldwasser, Lucelle Pardoe
Judges: Michele Hutchison (mentor), Haico Kaashoek, Paul Vincent, CJ Evans
2025:
Text: Avant que j’oublie by Anne Pauly (French)
Winner: Dina Leifer, Before I Forget—Coming out this fall.
Finalists: Victoria Baena, Kate McNamara
Judges: Adriana Hunter (mentor), Kate Briggs, Amanda Quinn
Learn more about the Stevns Translation Prize here(opens in a new tab).
