Susan Bernofsky's Blog, page 17

2018 Society of Authors Translation Prizes Announced

The Society of Authors in the UK (home to the wonderful Translators Association [TA]) announced its 2018 translation prizes last week at a ceremony in London. All these prizes celebrate works that were published in the UK in 2017. I already announced one of them out of excitement (new prize, always a great thing), but will include it in the lineup below as well:

TA First Translation Prize (the new prize) honors a book translated by a translator who hasn’t previously published a book-length work in translation. This prize is split between the translator and the book’s editor. Recipients: Translator Bela Shayevich and editor Jacques Testard for Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich (Fitzcarraldo Editions).

The winner of the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic literary translation is Robin Moger, for his translation of The Book of Safety by Yasser Abdel Hafez (Hoopoe Fiction, AUC Press).

The winner of the Goethe-Institut Award for new translation from the German is Mandy Wight for her translation of an extract from Juli Zeh’s Unterleuten (Luchterhand Literaturverlag).

The winner of this year’s Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translation from the German is Allan Blunden, for his translation of Nightmare in Berlin by Hans Fallada (Scribe).

Katy Derbyshire was commended for her translation of Bricks and Mortar by Clemens Meyer (Fitzcarraldo Editions).

The winners of the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation from the French are Will McMorran and Thomas Wynn, for their translation of The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade (Penguin Classics).

Antony Melville was commended for his translation of Anciet or the Panorama by Louis Aragon (Atlas Press).

The winner of the Premio Valle Inclán for translation from the Spanish is Margaret Jull Costa for her translation of On the Edge by Rafael Chirbes (Vintage, Harvill Secker).

Rosalind Harvey was commended for her translation of I’ll Sell You a Dog by Juan Pablo Villalobos (And Other Stories).

The winner of The Vondel Prize for translation from the Dutch is David McKay for his translation of Stefan Hertmans’ War and Turpentine (Penguin Random House).

David Doherty was commended for his translations of The Dutch Maiden by Marente de Moor and You Have Me to Love by Jaap Robben (both by World Editions).

For more information about the prizes, winning books, judges, and translators, please visit the Society of Authors website.

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TA First Translation Prize Announced

This is the very first year of the brand new TA First Translation Prize, so I’m giving it its own special blog post even though it was announced together with the other 2018 translation prizes awarded by the Translators Association last night. This £2,000 prize honors both the first-time translator of a book-length literary work published in the UK and the book’s editor, recognizing the hard work editors do and the decisive contributions they make to the quality and success of a literary work, particularly when collaborating with a first-time translator. The TA First Translation Prize was launched and funded by Daniel Hahn with support from the British Council; he sat on this year’s jury together with Rosalind Harvey and Bill Swainson. The first shortlist was published in January, and now the first winners has been announced: translator Bela Shayevich and her editor Jacques Testard of Fitzcarraldo Editions for Second-Hand Time by 2017 Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich, a 700-page tome filled with many different voices that presented significant challenges for both translator and editor. For more information about the prize and the winning translation, see the Society of Authors website. Big congratulations to Shayevich and Testard! May this prizewinning book be one of many. (And may Shayevich get her name on the cover next time.)

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Translation on Tap in NYC, March 1 – 31, 2018

Thanks for tuning in, Translation fans! Here’s what’s coming up in March.

Thursday, March 1:

A Celebration of A Poet in Spain by Federico García Lorca: translator Sarah Arvio will be launching her new book of Lorca translations with translators Nathalie Handal and Rowan Ricardo Phillips as well as Cyrus Cassells, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Roberto Montes, and Phillip Schultz. More information here. The New School, Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, 66 W. 12th St., Room A106 (Auditorium), 6:30 p.m.

Monday, March 12:

Third-Millennium Heart: Book launch event with translator Katrine Jensen and poet Ursula Andkjær Olsen. More information here. Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave., 7:00 p.m.

Tuesday, March 13:

Neapolitan Chronicles: Book launch event with translators Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee speaking about/reading from their translation of Neapolitan Chronicles by Anna Maria Ortese. More information here. Community Bookstore, 143 Seventh Ave., Brooklyn, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, March 14:

Neapolitan Chronicles: Book launch event with translators Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee speaking about/reading from their translation of Neapolitan Chronicles by Anna Maria Ortese. They will be joined by with Giovanna Calvino. More information here. Hofstra University, 11:15 a.m.-12:40 p.m.

Tuesday, March 20:

Neapolitan Chronicles: Book launch event with translators Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee speaking about/reading from their translation of Neapolitan Chronicles by Anna Maria Ortese. More information here. Book Culture on Columbus, 450 Columbus Ave, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, March 22:

Judgment: Book launch event with translators Harriet Murav and Sasha Senderovich presenting their translation of Judgment by David Bergelson. More information here. CUNY-Baruch College, 55 Lexington Ave., Rm. Room 14-270, 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday, March 27:

Neapolitan Chronicles: Book launch event with translators Ann Goldstein and Jenny McPhee speaking about/reading from their translation of Neapolitan Chronicles by Anna Maria Ortese. More information here. 192 Books, 192 Tenth Ave., 7:00 p.m.

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2018 PEN Translation Prize Announced

At a awards ceremony last night in New York, PEN America announced the winners of this year’s PEN translation awards.

The PEN Translation Prize has gone to Len Rix for his translation from the Hungarian of Magda Szabó’s novel Katalin Street. (He previously won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for his translation of her novel The Door.) I’m delighted to see this prize go to the translator of a woman author.

The PEN Poetry in Translation Award is on hiatus this year, alas, and this is one of the years in which the Edward and Lily Tuck Award for Paraguayan Literature goes to a Paraguayan author (in this case Javier Viveros) rather than a translator, so the PEN Translation Prize was the only translation award presented at the ceremony this year except for the previously-announced Ralph Manheim Medal to Barbara Harshav.

Congratulations to Len Rix for this award (and again to Barbara Harshav for hers).

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2017 Global Humanities Translation Prize Announced

This is the second year of the Global Humanities Translation Prize, a $5000 annual award to “encourage new translations of important literary, scholarly, and other humanistic books from around the world, particularly from non-Western languages,” according to the Global Humanities Initiative website at Northwestern University that administers the prize along with Northwestern University Press, which publishes the winning translations. This year’s prize goes to Lawrence Venuti, for a translation of Daybook 1918: Early Fragments by Catalan poet J.V. Foix. For more information about the prize and competition (which will be open to submissions again starting in August), visit the Global Humanities Initiative website.

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2018 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Winners

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund grants, now in their 15th year, were made possible by a generous donation from translator Michael Henry Heim and his wife, Priscilla Heim. PEN has just announced the 13 winners of this year’s grants, selected by a jury consisting of John Balcom, Peter Constantine, Tynan Kogane, Allison Markin Powell, Fiona McCrae, Mary Ann Newman, Antonio Romani, Chip Rossetti, Ross Ufberg, and Natasha Wimmer, chaired by Samantha Schnee. The 13 languages reflected in this year’s awards include Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Kannada, Farsi/Persian, and Yiddish. Each translator will receive a grant of $2,800 to assist them in completing their projects.

PEN also announced the recipient of this year’s PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature ($5000): Jeanne Bonner for her translation of A Walk in the Shadows, by Mariateresa Di Lascia.

Here are this year’s PEN/Heim grant recipients:

Janine Beichman for her selection and translation from the Japanese of The Essential Yosano Akiko: The Ripening Years (poems).

Alexander Dickow, for his translation from the French of Sylvie Kandé’s Neverending Quest for the Other Shore: An Epic in Three Cantos.

Emily Drumsta for her translation from the Arabic of Revolt Against the Sun, a compilation of poems by Iraqi poet Nazik al-Malaika.

Lindy Falk van Rooyen for her translation of contemporary Danish writer Mich Vraa’s novel Hope.

Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton for their translation from the Korean of One Left, a novel by Sum Kim.

Michael Gluck, for his translation from the Russian of Matisse, a novel by Alexander Ilichevsky.

Srinath Perur for his translation from the Kannada of All Will Be Revealed, a novel by Vivek Shanbhag.

Mariam Rahmani for her translation from the Farsi of Mahsa Mohebali’s novel Don’t Worry.

Aaron Robertson for his translation from the Italian of a novel by Igiaba Scego, Beyond Babylon.

Julia Sanches for her translation from the Spanish of Slash and Burn, a novel by Claudia Hernández.

Jamie Lee Searle for her translation from the German of Valerie Fritsch’s novel Winter’s Garden.

Brian Sneeden for his translation from the Greek of Phoebe Giannisi’s poetry collection, Rhapsodia.

Ri J. Turner for her translation from the Hebrew of Fischel Schneerson’s Yiddish novel, Chaim Gravitzer.

Congratulations to all this year’s grant recipients!

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2018 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal to Barbara Harshav

 The PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal awarded by the Translation Committee of PEN America is a lifetime achievement award for a distinguished translator awarded every three years. Previous winners include such luminaries as Gregory Rabassa, Edith Grossman, and Richard Howard. The award was initiated by funds donated by Bernard Malamud and Gay Talese, and has received additional support from the family and friends of Ralph Manheim, who died in 1992.

The 2018 Medal, which has just been announced, has been awarded to Barbara Harshav, a past president of the American Literary Translators Association, who is known for her translations from French, German, Hebrew, and Yiddish of such works as Between Life and Death by Yoram Kaniuk and Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier. More information about the prize can be found on the PEN website. Harshav is only the third woman to receive this award in its 36-year history (10 men have won it).

The Ralph Manheim Medal will be formally presented in a ceremony at NYU’s Skirball Center on Feb. 20, together with the PEN Translation Prize (not yet announced). (The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation is on hiatus this year.)

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Apply Now for Goethe-Institut Translator’s Residencies in Germany

The Goethe-Institut – in cooperation with the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony – offers six residencies of six to eight weeks (each of which comes with a €1500 fellowship) for experienced translators from German into any language. The residencies are held either in Dresden-Hellerau or at Gut Siggen, a manor house (now conference center) on the Baltic Sea, between March and December. To qualify, you must already have published two books in translation, and must be under contract for the book you propose to translate during the residency. You’ll find more information on the Goethe-Institut website, or write to Andreas Schmohl with any questions. Applications for this year’s residencies are due on Feb. 28, 2018.

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Apply Now for 2018 Translation Lab at Ledig House

The Translation Lab at Art Omi: Writers (the writers’ retreat formerly know as Ledig House) is an excellent thing to apply for. The program allows four pairs of translators and their authors to work together on the beautiful, wooded, sculpture-studded grounds of Art Omi for 12 days of intense collaboration. This year’s Lab is scheduled for Nov. 7 – 18 2017.

DW Gibson, Director of Art Omi: Writers, writes:

All residencies are fully funded, including airfare and local transport from New York City to the Omi International Arts Center in Ghent, NY. Please note: accepted applicants must be available for the duration of the Translation Lab (November 7-18, 2017). Late arrivals and early departures are not possible. Please do not submit a proposal unless both parties involved (translator and writer) are available for all dates.

Each proposal should be no more than three pages in length and provide the following information:

• Brief biographical sketches for the translator and writer associated with each project

• Publishing status for proposed projects (projects that do not yet have a publisher are still eligible)

• A description of the proposed project

• Contact information (physical address, email, and phone)

Sample translation optional. For more information, see the Art Omi: Writers website.

All proposals and inquires should be sent by e-mail to DW Gibson at Ledig House. Proposals will be accepted until July 15, 2018.

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Apply Now To Translate in Banff in Summer 2018

I had such an amazing time at Banff the summer I went there to participate in the June session of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre

(BILTC, pronounced “biltsy”). You can work on your translation there, interact with other translators, stroll up mountains, get critiqued by a featured pro, even meet with your author. It’s one of the prettiest places you’ll ever see and a fantastic program. You’ll find lots of information (including the application form) on the Banff Centre website. Scholarships and travel stipends are available. The application deadline this year is Feb. 8, 2016.

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