Since 2001 the Roth Endowment has sponsored a Persian Translation Prize adjudicated by  members of the American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIS), which represents over 30 universities teaching Farsi. The Persian Translation Prize seeks to honour superlative English translations of both contemporary and ancient Persian texts.

The 2014 Lois Roth Translation Prize for literary translation from Persian to English has gone to Irish poet Geoffrey Squires for Hafez: Translations and Interpretations of the Ghazals (Miami University Press, 2014). In this volume Squires, who lived in Iran for three years, captures the energy and depth of the iconic fourteenth-century poet Hafez ‘in contemporary English without archaisms or a predetermined interpretation, displaying a supple and at times even exhilarating handling of language and form.’ The integration of notes and commentary provide the uninitiated reader with just the right amount of background information and a personal lyrical encounter with the raw poem, without losing the unique qualities of the fixed-form ghazal.