World Literature Today Announces 2025 Student Translation Prize Winners

World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of international literature and culture, has announced the winners of its annual Student Translation Prize. 

Fabienne Rink and Fion Tse were recently named the recipients of the sixth annual translation prize for students sponsored by World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma. Consistent with World Literature Today’s commitment to publishing literature in translation, the WLT Student Translation Prize recognizes the talent and promise of students worldwide.

The editors of WLT judged the competition: Daniel Simon, assistant director and editor in chief; Michelle Johnson, managing and culture editor; and Rob Vollmar, book review and online editor. They selected a winner in two categories, poetry and prose. Each prizewinner will receive a cash award, and their winning translations will be published on the WLT website in June.

Robert Con Davis-Undiano, WLT’s executive director, noted that this prize “recognizes the fact of translation as one of the most vital and important things we ever do as a culture.” He added that “WLT is proud to be encouraging emerging translators to hone skills in the practice of this most vital activity in the publishing world.”

Recipients of the 2025 World Literature Today Student Translation Prizes

Fabienne Rink won the poetry category for her translation of three poems from the German from längst fällige verwilderung, by Swiss writer Simone Lappert. Rink is a second-year student in the University of Iowa’s literary translation MFA program and a journalist from Germany. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism and is also pursuing a master’s degree in literary and cultural studies from TU Dortmund University. Rink translates poetry and prose from German and French. Her faculty sponsor for the submission was Aron Aji, director of Translation Programs at the University of Iowa.

Fion Tse won the prose category for her translation from the Chinese of “Nightfall, Beyond Words,” an excerpt from a chapter of Lo Yu’s novel Yung Yung. Tse was born and raised in Hong Kong and translates between Chinese (Cantonese/Mandarin) and English. She studied comparative literature and East Asian languages and civilizations at the University of Chicago and is now pursuing an MFA in literary translation at the University of Iowa as an Iowa Arts Fellow. Jan Steyn, director of the MFA in Literary Translation program at the University of Iowa, served as the faculty sponsor for Tse’s submission.