Kathmandu, September 12
A three-day international literary translation workshop, ‘Literary Translation Workshop’, has begun at Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel campus, jointly organised by the Department of Languages and Mass Communication and South Asian Literature in Translation (SALT) at the University of Chicago, from September 11, 2026.
The intensive workshop focusing on the craft of translating literary prose from Nepali, Maithili, Tibetan and Nepal Bhasa includes twenty-five participants.
This workshop brings writers and translators to impart insights on literary translations to a new cohort of literary translators from Nepal.
Jason Grunebaum, Daniel Hahn, and the Booker Prize-winning Daisy Rockwell and Deepa Bhasthi are among the translators mentoring the workshop. Rockwell received the 2022 International Booker Prize for her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand. Her translation was the first work originally written in Hindi to win the award. Bhasthi, the first Indian translator to win the International Booker Prize, received the honour in 2025 for her translation of Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp.
Grunebaum, co-director of the SALT Project, has translated works like The Girl with the Golden Parasol and The Walls of Delhi. He is an Instructional Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilisations and Creative Writing at the University of Chicago. Hahn was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2020 for services to literature, and is known for translating works by Pelé and José Saramago. He is also a co-director of SALT.
The SALT programme attempts to bring the rich literature from the South Asian region to the Anglophone markets. “One of the greatest successes of SALT so far is that we’re attending to every link in the system that you need for a book to start in a South Asian language and end up on the bookshelves in the Western Anglosphere,” Grunebaum said about the project.
“To have their literary pieces reviewed by mentors holding such a revered portfolio is a delightful opportunity for the new generation of Nepali translators wishing to hone their craft,” Dinesh Kafle, assistant professor at Kathmandu University and a member of the organising team, said.
The program will also include a publishers’ roundtable, editing workshop and a public reading session featuring the participants and the award-winning mentors along with James Tookey, co-director of Peirene Press, and Snigdha Koirala, editor at Faber. The event will be hosted at Yala Maya Kendra, Patan, on September 13.
