Susan Bernofsky's Blog, page 30

New German Nonfiction Translation Competition (GINT)!

Attention all aspiring translators of German! In case you didn’t hear about this two years ago, when this prize was first launched, there’s a new competition to try your hands at, for nonfiction writing, organized by the German Book Office and Geisteswissenschaften International, with some hefty cash prizes up for grabs. As with the Goethe Institut’s Gutekunst Prize, all the translators entering this competition, offered every other year, will translate the same text (in this case, you’ll have your choice of two options, around 900 words each). And like the Gutekunst Prize, the GINT (which stands for Geisteswissenschaften International Nonfiction Translation Contest) is intended to encourage those who might be considering a career in translation to continue down this path (or rabbit hole, at least according to this happy rabbit).

The competition is limited to emerging translators, and all participants will be required to formally affirm that they have not published more than one book-length translation and that the work they submit for the competition is theirs alone. The winning translators will be awarded $1500 for first place, $1000 for second, $500 for third.

To participate, download the German texts for translation from the GINT website. Finished translations (American English is requested) should be submitted by email to Elizabeth Berman no later than Oct. 31, 2016; only the first 200 entries to arrive will be entered into the competition. The inaugural GINT jury includes Shelley Frisch, Paula Bradish, Sarah Pybus (who was the GINT winner the first time it was offered), and Laura Leichum.

A flyer with more details has been posted online. Winners will be selected in December and announced in January 2017. Best of luck to all the aspiring nonfiction translators among us!

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2016 ALTA Translation Prizes Announced

This weekend at the American Literary Translators Association conference in Oakland, the winners of the two 2016 National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose were announced, along with the Lucien Stryk Prize for a translation from an Asian language, and the Italian Prose in Translation Award. Without further ado, here are the winners:

The National Translation Award in Poetry has gone to Hilary Kaplan for her translation of Rilke Shake by Angélica Freitas (Phoneme Media).

The National Translation Award in Prose has gone to Liz Harris, for her translation of Tristano Dies: A Life by Antonio Tabucchi (Archipelago)

The Lucien Stryk Prize has gone to Sawako Nakayasu for her translation of The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa (Canarium Books).

The Italian Prose in Translation Award has gone to Ann Goldstein for her translation of The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (whose name is Elena Ferrante, thank you very much) (Europa Editions).

Congratulations to all this year’s ALTA prize winners!

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2016 National Translation Award Shortlists Announced

The American Literary Translators Association has just announced the shortlists for its 2016 National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose. The winners of both awards will be announced next week at the ALTA conference in Oakland, CA.

2016 NTA Shortlist in Poetry

Minute-Operas by Frédéric Forte (France)

Translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker, Ian Monk, Michelle Noteboom, Jean-Jacques Poucel

(Burning Deck)

Rilke Shake by Angélica Freitas (Brazil)

Translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan

(Phoneme Media)

The Black Flower and Other Zapotec Poems by Natalia Toledo (Mexico)

Translated from the Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish by Clare Sullivan

(Phoneme Media)

The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa by Chika Sagawa (Japan)

Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu

(Canarium Books)

White Blight by Athena Farrokhzad (Sweden)

Translated from the Swedish by Jennifer Hayashida

(Argos Books)

2016 NTA Shortlist in Prose

Leg over Leg by Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (Lebanon)

Translated from the Arabic by Humphrey Davies

(Library of Arabic Literature/NYU Press)

The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector by Clarice Lispector (Brazil)

Translated from the Portuguese by Katrina Dodson

(New Directions)

The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud (Algeria)

Translated from the French by John Cullen

(Other Press)

The Physics of Sorrow by Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria)

Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel

(Open Letter Books)

Tristano Dies: A Life by Antonio Tabucchi (Italy)

Translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris

(Archipelago Books)

More information on each of these titles, the longlists, and the judges are available here. Wishing all this year’s contenders good luck next week!

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Oct. 1 – 15, 2016

Here’s what’s coming up in the first half of October:

Wednesday, Oct. 12:

New Writing from Singapore, launch event for Words Without Border’s new issue featuring Tamil-language poet and writer Latha and translator/editor Dan Feng. RSVP recommended, more information here. The Center for Fiction, 17, E. 47th St., 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15:

Us&Them: A Writer/Translator Reading Series presents Jennifer Hayashida translating Ida Börjel (Sweden); Carina del Valle Schorske translating Marigloria Palma (Puerto Rico); Daniel Joseph translating warrior tales (Medieval Japan); and Neo Sora screening “Ainu Neno An Ainu,” a documentary from Lunch Bee House (Hokkaido). Molasses Books, 770 Hart St. (Dekalb L), Brooklyn, 8:00 p.m.

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2016 Lucien Stryk and IPTA shortlists announced

Among the translation prizes given out each year by the American Literary Translators Association at the annual conference (you can read up here on ALTA39, taking place this year in Oakland, CA, Oct. 6-9) are the Lucien Stryk Prize, for a work translated from an Asian language, and the Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA), which was established in 2015. You’ll have to wait until October to learn the winners, but meanwhile you can feast your eyes on these shortlists.

2016 Lucien Stryk Prize shortlist:

I Am a Season that Does Not Exist in the World

By Kim Kyung Ju

Translated from the Korean by Jake Levine

(Black Ocean)

 

Ripened Wheat: Selected Poems of Hai Zi

By Hai Zi

Translated from the Chinese by Ye Chun

(The Bitter Oleander Press)

The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa

By Chika Sagawa

Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu

(Canarium Books)

 

The Late Poems of Wang An-Shih

By Wang An-Shih

Translated from the Chinese by David Hinton

(New Directions)

 

These Things Here and Now: Poetic Responses to the March 11, 2011 Disasters

By various poets

Translated from the Japanese by Jeffrey Angles

(Josai University Educational Corporation University Press)

 

2016 Italian Prose in Translation Award shortlist:

Hollow Heart

By Viola Di Grado

Translated from the Italian by Antony Shugaar

(Europa Editions)

 

The Story of the Lost Child

By Elena Ferrante

Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein

(Europa Editions)

 

Tristano Dies: A Life

By Antonio Tabucchi

Translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris

(Archipelago Books)

 

Each of these prizes comes with a $5000 purse. Winners to be announced at the conference; congratulations to all the shortlisted translators and their authors!

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2016 ALTA Fellows Announced

The American Literary Translators Association gives out 5 or 6 $1000 fellowships to emerging translators each year attend the annual conference (to be held this year in Oakland, CA Oct. 6 – 9, details here). ALTA Fellows present their work in a festive reading the first evening (Thursday) of the conference – it’s great exposure (everyone goes), and they have many other opportunities in the course of the conference to connect with established translators who share their language areas and interests. This year’s slate of fellows has just been announced:

Bruna Dantas Lobato (Brazilian Portuguese) – picked for the new Peter K. Jansen Memorial Travel Fellowship
Monika Cassel (German)
Nicholas Glastonbury (Turkish)
Haider Shahbaz (Urdu)
Kelsi Vanada, 2016 ALTA Travel Fellow (Spanish)

Visit the ALTA website for full profiles of each of the 2016 Fellows and information about the conference. Congratulations, Bruna, Monika, Nicholas, Haider, and Kelsi – see you in Oakland!

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Translation on Tap in NYC, Sept. 1 – 30, 2016

Here were are, temperatures are dropping back to normal, school’s starting up again, and so are the translation events we’ve been missing all summer. I know you’ll be happy to see the first robust events calendar in months, so enjoy!

Wednesday Sept. 7:

Launch event for the Argentinean classic Zama by Antonio di Benedetto, featuring translator Esther Allen and author Álvaro Enrigue. More information here. Community Bookstore, 143 7th Ave., Brooklyn, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 14:

Banned But Translated, a Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend event sponsored by the PEN Translation Committee’s Free Expression Subcommittee, featuring translators Daniella Gitlin, Allison Markin Powell, Chip Rossetti, Jenny Wang Medina, and Alex Zucker reading from the works of authors Naawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Orhan Pamuk (Turkey), Yan Lianke (China), Magdy El Shafee (Egypt), and Anna Politkovskaya (Russia), discussion to follow. Audience members are invited to bring banned texts that they would like to hear read. RSVP recommended, more information here. Word Books, 126 Franklin St., Brooklyn, 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 25:

Sunday Night Fiction at KGB: translation edition, co-sponsored by the PEN Translation Committee, featuring Robert Bononno, Heather Cleary, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, and others TBA. More information here. KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th St., 7:00 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 30 – Saturday, Oct. 1:

Translation Twin Conference Weekend: the Nida School of Translation Studies and NYU’s Master’s in Translation program, SPS Center for Applied Liberal Arts have joined forces to present a pair of coordinated translation symposia that together form a two-day conference. One registration covers both days ($50 including lunch), or you can register separately for one or the other. All events will be held at NYU @ Woolworth Building, 15 Barclay St.

Friday, Sept. 30:

The Nida School of Translation Studies presents “Deep Translation: Time and Transformation,” including presentations by Brian James Baer (with Michelle Woods as interlocutor) and Wai Chee Dimock (with Edwin Gentzler as interlocutor). Registration required, more information here. 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 1:

The NYU Master’s in Translation program presents “Art, Access, and Advocacy”:

9:00 a.m. The Artisan Translator

Panel – Michael Crooks, Roxana Dinu, Eileen Hennessy, Elizabeth Lowe

10:15 a.m. Gregory Shreve

Accessibility andAcceptability: The Translator as a Reader Advocate

11:30 a.m. Chen Zhongliang

Translating & Interpreting for the United Nations

12:30 p.m. Lunch

2:00 p.m. Between Training and Practice

Panel – NYU Master’s in Translation Alumni (TBA)

3:15 p.m. Elbow Grease for Translators! Taking Interested Positions and Making a Difference

Panel – Thomas Acker, Bryce Graham, Mario Morelos, Julie Tay

4:30 p.m. Kenneth Kronenberg

The Premium Market – Realities and Implications

Registration required, more information here. 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

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Apply Now for the Helen Hammer Translation Prize

Apparently for seven years now unbeknownst to me, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute has been giving out yearly grants to support the translation of books having to do in a substantial way with both Jews and gender. I’m seeing a lot of overlap on that Venn diagram. If you look at the list of previous recipients, you’ll see that most recently the award has mainly gone to support the translation of nonfiction books from Hebrew (e.g. this year’s winning project, Dirshuni: Midrashei Nashim, edited by Tamar Biala and Nechama Weingarten-Mintz), but if you delve a bit deeper, you’ll see that grants have also been awarded for the translation of novels as well as books from various other languages (e.g. French and German). So if you’re contemplating a translation project that fits these in fact fairly broad guidelines, why not send in an application? The deadline this year is Nov. 15, 2016, and the winner will be announced on April 3, 2017. For more details and application instructions, see the Helen Hammer Translation Prize page of the HBI website.

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2016 PEN Center USA Translation Award Announced

The West-Coast-based PEN Center USA has just announced its 2016 literary award winners, including in the category of literary translation. This year’s prize goes to Stephen Kessler for his translation of Forbidden Pleasures by Luis Cernuda (Black Widow Press). Three runners-up have also been named as a longlist:

Jessica Powell, Woman In Battle Dress by Antonio Benítez-Rojo (City Lights)

Anastas Kapurani and Wayne Miller, Zodiac by Moikom Zeqo (Zephyr Press)

Dan Bellm, Description of a Flash of Cobalt Blue by Jorge Esquinca (Unicorn Press)

This year’s panel of judges included Hélène Cardona, Hilary Kaplan, and André Naffis-Sahely. Congratulations to all the translators whose work was honored!

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NEA Announces 2017 Translation Fellowships

There are grounds for celebration in Translationland this year, because the funds made available to the NEA to distribute in the form of translation fellowships has increased: $325,000 in grants were announced this week (up from $275,000 last year), going to 23 translators (up from 20). I would like to suggest that this is an excellent use of your tax dollars and guaranteed to produce no civilian casualties. Three translators this year (Dan Golembeski, J. Kates, and current ALTA President Russell Valentino) were singled out for grants at the $25,000 level (up from two last year), and the rest of the grants are for a still-far-from-shabby $12,500.

Here’s the list of the 2017 grantees. More information about these translators and their projects can be found on the NEA website.

Andrés Alfaro
Ned Balbo
Steven Bradbury
Kaiama L. Glover
Dan Golembeski
Anne Janusch
J. Kates
David Keplinger
Roman Kostovski
Melanie A. Magidow
Jamie Olson
Victor Pambuccian
Emma Ramadan
Amy Baram Reid
Philip Roughton
Robert S. Rudder
Thom Satterlee
Damion Searls
David Shook
Barbara Sjoholm
Sarah Thomas
Russell Valentino
Katherine E. Young

Congratulations to all this year’s grant recipients!

The application deadline for the next round of fellowships is Dec. 6, 2016. You’ll find guidelines and more details on the Translation Fellowships page of the NEA website.

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