The 2026 Aficionado Award goes to the translation project Words Without Borders
The 2026 Aficionado Award goes to the global translation project Words Without Borders, based in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 2003 by W. W. Norton Executive Editor Alane Mason and Spanish-to-English translator Samantha Schnee, who has beenboard chair for the past decade, the digital magazine publishes international literature in E WWB’s english translation. It helps make literary voices from around the world more accessible, with a particular focus on Indigenous, endangered and otherwise overlooked languages. With this award, the international jury also recognises the central role that translators play in fostering international exchange and bringing literary voices from different linguistic communities to a wider audience.
The Aficionado Award honours individuals, organisations and initiatives that make a lasting difference to the publishing industry. Each year, a shortlist is presented to a professional audience at the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino in May. The recipient is then selected by an international publishing community, and the award is presented at Frankfurter Buchmesse. In 2026, Elisabeth Jaquette, Executive Director of Words Without Borders and Arabic-to-English translator, will accept the award on behalf of the entire team.
Aficionado Award: Panel Discussion and Awards Ceremony
When: Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 11:00 am
Where: Global Stage, Foyer 5.1/6.1
Featuring: Elisabeth Jaquette, Executive Director of Words Without Borders and Arabic-to-English translator; Erin Cox (moderator, Frankfurter Buchmesse), Tom Kraushaar (Klett-Cotta)
Jury Statement
Words Without Borders has spent over twenty years doing something simple but rare: making sure literature written outside English actually reaches readers who read in English. Its magazine introduced writers like Elena Ferrante, Olga Tokarczuk, and Jon Fosse long before they became household names, alongside hundreds of translators and authors working in indigenous, endangered, and otherwise overlooked languages. That commitment has never stayed confined to the page. This prize recognises an organisation that has quietly and consistently expanded, whose stories get told, and who gets to read them.
www.buchmesse.de/ ,wordswithoutborders.org
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