November 6, 2025—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced the winner of the 2025 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award (SUFTA) today at an Awards Ceremony as part of ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA48: Visions and Versions, in Tucson, AZ. Judge Elizabeth Lowe conferred the prize on winner Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, who read a short statement and selection from the winning text. 2025 marks the fourth year for the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award.

This year’s judges are Amaia Gabantxo, Elizabeth Lowe, and Lucia Aranda. The winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize.

Winner: 2025 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award

Crossing Waters
By Luisa Etxenike
Translated from Spanish by Lilit Žekulin Thwaites
Sundial House

This is what the judges had to say about this year’s winner:

Three characters determine a story set in the Basque Country: a blind fashion designer who finds a way of continuing to swim in the open seas, a newly arrived Colombian immigrant who knows she will never miss home, and her young, deliberately-mute son. People in exceptional circumstances who create a web of mutual support in an unsettled context, and in the process refine and redefine their own humanity. Their story spells the need for new languages to break the spell of trauma. Lilit Žekulin Thwaites captures this crisp and delicate evolution of language, embodying the spirit of the work in the flow of her powerful translation.

About the winner

Lilit Žekulin Thwaites is an award-winning Australian literary translator (Spanish>English), and Adjunct Professor (Hispanic Studies) at La Trobe University. Her book-length translations include Crossing Waters (Luisa Etxenike), the bestselling The Librarian of Auschwitz (Antonio Iturbe), Australian Connection (multiple authors), and Rosa Montero’s futuristic Tears in Rain and Weight of the Heart. Her translations of short stories, essays and the occasional poem have been published in established journals and anthologies. She presents sessions at writers’ festivals, gives talks on Spain-related and translation topics, and co-organises visits to Australia by Spanish-speaking writers. In 2016, she was awarded Spain’s Order of Civil Merit.

Image description: Lilit, a Spanish>English translator born in the Czech Republic, now lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is also a Canadian and British citizen. She is wearing her wombat brooch.

About the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award

The Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award (SUFTA), offered in partnership with the Spain-USA Foundation, recognizes translations into English of literary prose works written originally by authors of Spanish (Spain) nationality. Inaugurated in 2022, this $5,000 award accepts translations from original texts in Spanish, Catalan, Basque, or Galician.

The 2026 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award submissions portal will be opened in January 2026.