Stripped of national honours, Azerbaijani writer wins EBRD Literature Prize

Akram Aylisli

The Azerbaijani novelist Akram Aylisli has won the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) 2026 Literature Prize for his Soviet-era trilogy, People and Trees.

The €20,000 (£16,800) prize, which celebrates translated literary fiction from countries where the bank operates, will be split equally between the author and his English translator, Katherine E. Young.

Aylisli's work beat Polish writer Jacek Dukaj's novel Ice and Egyptian author Shadi Lewis's On the Greenwich Line to secure the top spot after the three books were shortlisted for the final.

The autobiographical trilogy is set during World War Two in a mountainous village in Soviet Azerbaijan, told through the eyes of a young boy named Sadiq.

It depicts the heavy physical labour of women and the struggle of families to survive while the men are away at the front.

The judging panel praised the narrative style, noting that the author masterfully depicted adult passions and crimes through the innocent perspective of a child.

The chair of the jury, British writer and literary critic Maya Jaggi, said Young’s translation from the original Russian text successfully preserved the "stark, yet magical childhood atmosphere" of the work.

Speaking to the BBC, Young said that although People and Trees was written early in Aylisli's career, it carried the core characteristics of his later writing.

"Despite the heavy themes of war, hunger, ecological destruction, and domestic violence, the work instils a sense of hope," Young said. "Translating it was a great pleasure."

Aylisli, a prominent novelist, playwright, and translator, has faced severe state persecution in Azerbaijan for more than a decade.

In 2013, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stripped Aylisli of his "People's Writer" title and his presidential pension following the publication of his controversial novella Stone Dreams.

The book, which addressed the historically fraught relations between Azerbaijanis and Armenians, sparked state-backed protests, public book burnings, and a criminal investigation against the author.

Aylisli has been subjected to a state-imposed travel ban since 2016, preventing him from leaving the country.

International human rights organisations have repeatedly condemned the campaign against the author, calling the state harassment politically motivated.

The EBRD Literature Prize has been awarded annually since 2018 to promote translated fiction from the regions of the bank's operations.