2017 French Voices Awards Announced

The French Voices Awards (sponsored by the FACE Foundation) go to outstanding works translated from French that have not yet appeared in English translation – they are works-in-progress awards presented by the French Cultural Services of the French embassy and include one Grand Prize and a number of additional awards. Each prize is split between the translator and English-language publisher. In past years, this split has been discouragingly imbalanced, with the translator receiving between 1/3 and 2/5 of the prize moneys; this year’s announcement contains no mention of financials, so I don’t know what the current formula is for the distribution of funds, or indeed whether the same funding is available as last year ($10,000 total for the Grand Prize-winning book, $6000 for the others). As with last year’s list, most of these projects are still in search of publishers; the awards are intended among other things as a financial incentive. Unfortunately this year’s announcement also neglects to mention which of the selected projects has been awarded the Grand Prize, and I couldn’t find that information on the French Cultural Services website.

Here are the 13 books selected for French Voices Award support this year:

Nathalie Azoulai
[TITUS DID NOT LOVE BERENICE]
Ruth Diver, translator.
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(Titus n’aimait pas Bérénice, P.O.L, 2015)

Evelyne Bloch-Dano
PAPER GARDENS: A STROLL THROUGH FRENCH LITERATURE
Teresa Lavender Fagan, translator, University of Virginia Press, 2018
(Jardins de papier : de Rousseau à Modiano, Stock, 2015)

Damien Boquet & Nagy Piroska
MEDIEVAL SENSIBILITIES: A HISTORY OF EMOTIONS IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Robert Shaw, translator, Polity Press, 2018
(Sensible Moyen Âge. Une histoire des émotions dans l’Occident médiéval, Seuil, 2015)

Patrick Boucheron
THE POWER OF IMAGES: SIENA, 1338
Andrew Brown, translator, Polity Press, 2018
(Conjurer la peur. Essai sur la force politique des images, Seuil, 2013)

Stéphane Bouquet
[VIE COMMUNE]
Lindsay Turner, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(Vie Commune, Champ Vallon, 2016)

Sarah Gensburger
[MEMOIRE VIVE. CHRONIQUES D’UN QUARTIER BATACLAN 2015-2016]
Katharine Throssell, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(Mémoire vive. Chroniques d’un quartier Bataclan 2015-2016, Anamosa, 2017)

Alain Guiraudie
NOW THE NIGHT BEGINS
Jeffrey Zuckerman, translator, Semiotexte, 2017
(Ici commence la nuit, P.O.L, 2014)

Alexandre Leupin
[EDOUARD GLISSANT, PHILOSOPHE : HERACLITE, HEGEL ET LE
TOUT-MONDE]
Michael Wiedorn, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(Edouard Glissant, philosophe : Héraclite, Hegel et le Tout
Monde
, Hermann, 2016)

Maryam Madjidi
[MARX ET LA POUPEE]
Ruth Diver, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher (translated excerpts are avalaible on Asymptote)
(Marx et la poupée, Le Nouvel Attila, 2017)

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
[TERRE CEINTE]
Alexia Trigo, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(Terre Ceinte, Présence Africaine, 2014)

Patrice Nganang
[LA SAISON DES PRUNES]
Amy Reid, translator, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019
(La Saison des prunes, Philippe Rey, 2013)

Martin Page
[L’APICULTURE SELON SAMUEL BECKETT]
Roland Glasser, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(L’Apiculture selon Samuel Beckett, Editions de l’Olivier, 2013)

Anne Percin
[MA MERE, LE CRABE ET MOI]
Kate Deimling, translator
seeking an American publisher – please contact the French publisher.
(Ma mère, le crabe et moi, Rouergue, 2015)

Congratulations to all the translators whose work was selected for support! For more information about the selected books, see the announcement on the French Cultural Services website.

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