The Academy of American Poets Announces Niloufar Talebi as the Winner of the 2026 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award
Talebi receives the $1,000 prize for translating Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems by Ahmad Shamlou from Persian into English
New York, NY (June 17, 2026)—The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that Niloufar Talebi has won the 2026 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award for translating Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems by Ahmad Shamlou (World Poetry Books, 2025) from Persian into English. The award was judged by Cynthia Hogue.
Founded in 1976, the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award is given annually in recognition of a translation of poetry from any language into English that was published in the previous calendar year and demonstrates literary excellence. Previous winners include Clayton Eshelman, Robert Fagles, Jen Hofer, Stephanie McCarter, W. S. Merwin, and Rajiv Mohabir.
Talebi’s winning translation features selected poems by Ahmad Shamlou, one of Iran’s most influential twentieth-century poets. Shamlou (1925–2000), sometimes known by his pen name, Alef Bamdad, authored more than seventy books, including eighteen volumes of poetry. His work helped move Persian poetry from classical forms toward free verse and reflects a deep engagement with social issues and the human condition.
In her judge’s citation, Hogue praised Talebi’s “impressive work in bringing this major twentieth-century poet more fully into English.” Hogue continued, “Shamlou’s poetry comprises an ethical poetics of critical resistance to tyranny […] tender poems of longing, rendered with deft simplicity by the translator.” She also described Shamlou’s poetry as “elegantly innovative,” adding that it “gives eloquent voice to the conscience and courage of a people.”
The Harold Morton Landon Translation Award is part of the American Poets Prizes, a suite of major poetry awards and fellowships through which the Academy of American Poets annually awards more than $1.3 million to poets at various stages of their careers.
Submissions for the 2027 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award will be accepted online from September 15, 2026, to February 15, 2027. To review the eligibility requirements and official guidelines, visit poets.org.
About Niloufar Talebi
Niloufar Talebi is an author, translator, multidisciplinary artist, and producer whose work bridges literature, performance, and cross-cultural storytelling. She is the editor and translator of Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems by Ahmad Shamlou (World Poetry Books, 2025), recipient of a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship and winner of the 2026 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, and has spent two decades translating, presenting, and championing the work of Ahmad Shamlou through projects, including the hybrid memoir Self-Portrait in Bloom (L’Aleph, 2019) and the opera Abraham in Flames (2019). She is also the editor and translator of Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books, 2008). A Fulbright U.S. Scholar and TEDx speaker, she has taught writing and creativity at Stanford Continuing Studies, Plymouth State University, and Hunter College. Talebi’s interdisciplinary projects have been commissioned and presented by various institutions, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Stanford Live.
About Cynthia Hogue
Cynthia Hogue is the author of ten poetry collections, including instead, it is dark (Red Hen Press, 2023); Contain (Tram Editions, 2022); In June the Labyrinth (Red Hen Press, 2017); and Revenance (Red Hen Press, 2014), listed as one of 2014’s “standout” books by the Academy of American Poets. Hogue’s translations, both with Sylvain Gallais, include Nicole Brossard’s Lointaines (Omnidawn, 2022) and Fortino Sámano (The Overflowing of the Poem) (Omnidawn, 2012), from the French of Virginie Lalucq and Jean-Luc Nancy, which won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award in 2013. Hogue’s other honors include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a MacDowell residency, a Witter Bynner Translation Fellowship, and the H.D. Fellowship at Yale University. Before assuming the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Poetry in 2003 at Arizona State University, Hogue directed the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University. Hogue is an emerita professor of English. In September 2022, Hogue was the Guest Editor of Poem-a-Day. She lives in Tucson.
About the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award
Established in 1976, the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award is given annually by the Academy of American Poets in recognition of a translation of poetry from any language into English that was published in the previous calendar year and demonstrates literary excellence. The winner receives $1,000. Previous winners include Clayton Eshelman, Robert Fagles, Jen Hofer, Stephanie McCarter, W. S. Merwin, and Rajiv Mohabir. The Harold Morton Landon Translation Award is part of the American Poets Prizes, a suite of major poetry awards and fellowships through which the Academy of American Poets annually awards more than $1.3 million to poets at various stages of their careers.
About the Academy of American Poets
Founded in 1934, the Academy of American Poets is the largest poetry membership organization in the United States. Each year, the Academy awards more than $1.3 million to poets at various stages of their careers through its prize program. It also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; organizes National Poetry Month each April; publishes the Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides free resources to educators; hosts public poetry programs and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition that promotes the value poets bring to our culture. To learn more about the Academy of American Poets, including its staff, Board of Directors, and Board of Chancellors, visit poets.org.
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