While most of the main longlists this year were announced a couple of weeks ago, the Best Translated Book Award is fashionably late, with much tantalizing stirring-up of rumors and buzz on the Three Percent blog, where readers were offered prizes if they successfully guessed a complete longlist in either fiction or poetry (no one quite managed it).
So we’ve been waiting long enough – let’s have them already! All right, voila:
POETRY
Collected Poems by Rainer Brambach, translated from the German by Esther Kinsky (Switzerland, Seagull Books)
Diorama by Rocío Cerón, translated from the Spanish by Anna Rosenwong (Mexico, Phoeneme)
Nothing More to Lose by Najwan Darwish, translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid (Palestine, NYRB)
Lazy Suzie by Suzanne Doppelt, translated from the French by Cole Swenson (France, Litmus Press)
Openwork by André du Bouchet, translated from the French by Paul Auster and Hoyt Rogers (France, Yale University Press)
The Posthumous Life of RW by Jean Frémon, translated from the French by Cole Swensen (France, Omnidawn)
I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan, edited and translated from the Pashto by Eliza Griswold (Afghanistan, FSG)
Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream by Kim Hyesoon, translated from the Korean by Don Mee Choi (South Korea, Action Books)
Where Are the Trees Going? by Venus Khoury-Ghata, translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker (Lebanon, Curbstone)
Rain of the Future by Valerie Mejer, translated from the Spanish by A. S. Zelman-Doring, Forrest Gander, and C.D. Wright (Mexico, Action Books)
Diana’s Tree by Alejandra Pizarnik, translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert (Argentina, Ugly Duckling)
Compleat Catalogue of Comedic Novelties by Lev Rubinstein, translated from the Russian by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky (Russia, Ugly Duckling)
In Praise of Poetry by Olga Sedakova, translated from the Russian by Caroline Clark, Ksenia Golubovich, and Stephanie Sandler (Russia, Open Letter)
Soy Realidad by Tomaž Šalamun, translated from the Slovenian by Michael Thomas Taren (Slovenia, Dalkey Archive)
End of the City Map by Farhad Showghi, translated from the German by Rosmarie Waldrop (Germany, Burning Deck)
Guantanamo by Frank Smith, translated from the French by Vanessa Place (France, Les Figues)
Salsa by Hsia Yü, translated from the Chinese by Steve Bradbury (Taiwan, Zephyr Press)
FICTION
Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt, translated from the Danish by Denise Newman (Denmark, Two Lines Press)
The Author and Me by Éric Chevillard, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (France, Dalkey Archive Press)
Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires by Julio Cortázar, translated from the Spanish by David Kurnick (Argentina, Semiotext(e))
Pushkin Hills by Sergei Dovlatov, translated from the Russian by Katherine Dovlatov (Russia, Counterpoint Press)
1914 by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (France, New Press)
Street of Thieves by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (France, Open Letter Books)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)
Things Look Different in the Light by Medardo Fraile, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Pushkin Press)
Monastery by Eduardo Halfon, translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn (Guatemala, Bellevue Literary Press)
Letters from a Seducer by Hilda Hilst, translated from the Portuguese by John Keene (Brazil, Nightboat Books)
Harlequin’s Millions by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by Stacey Knecht (Czech Republic, Archipelago Books)
Rambling On: An Apprentice’s Guide to the Gift of the Gab by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from the Czech by David Short (Czech Republic, Karolinum Press)
The Woman Who Borrowed Memories by Tove Jansson, translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal and Silvester Mazzarella (Finland, NYRB)
Works by Edouard Levé, translated from the French by Jan Steyn (France, Dalkey Archive Press)
Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)
Adam Buenosayres by Leopoldo Marechal, translated from the Spanish by Norman Cheadle and Sheila Ethier (Argentina, McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Last Words from Montmartre by Qiu Miaojin, translated from the Chinese by Ari Larissa Heinrich (Taiwan, NYRB)
Winter Mythologies and Abbots by Pierre Michon, translated from the French by Ann Jefferson (France, Yale University Press)
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from the French by Melanie Mauthner (Rwanda, Archipelago Books)
Talking to Ourselves by Andrés Neuman, translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia (Argentina, FSG)
Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret by Ondjaki, translated from the Portuguese by Stephen Henighan (Angola, Biblioasis)
La Grande by Juan José Saer, translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Argentina, Open Letter Books)
Paris by Marcos Giralt Torrente, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Hispabooks)
Snow and Shadow by Dorothy Tse, translated from the Chinese by Nicky Harman (Hong Kong, East Slope Publishing)
The Last Lover by Can Xue, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (China, Yale University Press)
Note that Cole Swensen and Margaret Jull Costa have two books each on these lists (and guess who the RW referred to in the title of the Jean Frémon book is)! More info on both longlists (plus pretty pictures of all the book covers) can be found on the BTBA website.
The shortlists in both poetry and fiction will be announced on May 5, and the winners will be announced on May 27 during BookExpo America. I’m hoping there’ll be a party.