For The First Time, A Kashmiri Novel Crosses Borders, Wins Global Spotlight

By Iqbal Bhat

It's not often a novel written in Kashmiri reaches the global stage. But on June 16, that changed.

In a groundbreaking announcement at Himal Southasian's annual Fiction Fest, To Each Their Own Hell, a 1975 novel by Akhtar Mohiuddin, translated into English by Mehdi Khawaja, was named the winner of the 2025 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation.

The prize, only in its third year, honours translations that bring lesser-heard voices from South Asia to English-speaking readers.

This is the first time it has gone to a work written in Kashmiri, and, likely, the first time a Kashmiri novel will be published in English in the United States.

For a language as rich in literature as Kashmiri, and as historically ignored by global publishing, the moment is seismic.

“This book just doesn't let you go,” said Daisy Rockwell, a juror.“It's utterly unique. You feel the pulse of the narrator from the very first line.”

Rockwell, an International Booker–winning translator, compared Mohiuddin's novel to Sartre's No Exit and Flaubert's Madame Bovary, with the pacing of a dark thriller.

Written nearly fifty years ago, Akhtar Mohiuddin's To Each Their Own Hell is a deep and unsettling story about emptiness and longing. The characters-X, Sheen, Daisy, Nancy-move through a strange, blurry world where nothing feels real. Not much happens in the plot, but the feeling it leaves stays with you.

Khawaja's translation brings that strange, heavy mood to life with simple, powerful writing.

He's a freelance journalist and editor, and he's also taught Kashmiri literature at Ashoka University. He knows how to move between different voices, and he knows this work carries real weight.

“There's a strange silence in the novel,” he said.“It's about absence as much as presence. That's what made it so hard to translate. And that's what made it necessary.”

Born in 1928, Akhtar Mohiuddin is a towering literary figure in Kashmir. He wrote the first novel in the language-Dod Dag, or Disease and Pain-and in 1968 was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honors.

But in 1984, he returned the award in protest after the hanging of Kashmiri separatist leader Maqbool Bhat. He died in 2001. Many of his works remain unpublished, locked in drawers and family archives.

Khawaja's translation might be the first to break that lock.

Backed by Armory Square Ventures, a tech venture firm in upstate New York, the prize Khawaja received was created to address a glaring gap in the American publishing landscape.

Despite being spoken by more than a fifth of the world's population, South Asian languages make up less than 1 percent of all translated literature published in the United States. Only 64 such books were published in the last ten years.

“The fact that this prize even exists is a small miracle,” said Pia Sawhney, cofounder of Armory Square Ventures.“But the bigger miracle is the talent it's bringing forward. People like Mehdi Khawaja. Stories like this one.”

This year's prize jury, chaired by Jason Grunebaum, included some of the most respected names in literary translation-Rockwell, Sugi Ganeshananthan, Padma Viswanathan, Arunava Sinha, and Deena Chalabi.

The five shortlisted works spanned Hindi, Tamil, Sinhala, and Kashmiri, and moved between bustling South Asian cities and the serene pockets of Europe. Themes ranged from political unrest to familial memory.

Saigon Puducherry, a Tamil novel translated by Subhashree Beeman, received a Special Jury Mention for its emotional depth. All five finalists will have excerpts published later this year by Words Without Borders, offering readers an early glimpse into their worlds.

But it's Khawaja's work that will go the furthest.

Open Letter Books, a press based at the University of Rochester, will publish To Each Their Own Hell in 2027.

“This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first Kashmiri novel to be published in English in the U.S.,” said Chad W. Post, who runs Three Percent, a site that tracks literary translation.“It's a powerful start.”

In Kashmir, the news landed with pride.“People don't think of Kashmiri as a literary language beyond our region,” Khawaja said.“This award helps change that. It tells us our stories matter, and the world might finally be ready to listen.”

Whether the world is ready or not, Kashmiri literature is no longer waiting to be invited in.

It's arrived, with a voice that refuses to be silenced.

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