The Firecracker Awards for Independent Literary Publishing (formerly known as the Firecracker Alternative Book Award) are given out by the Community of Literary Magazine and Presses to celebrate excellence in literature published by independents of various stripes, including self-published books. Since these guys know excellence when they see it, I’m not surprised to see translated works of literature included in their lists – this year their fiction list contains 40% translated literature, a cheering percentage that certainly supports my belief that foreign-language literature in strong translations are an important part of the literary landscape in this country.
Here are the four books that made the 10-book shortlist:
Home by Leila S. Chudori, translated from the Indonesian by John McGlynn (Deep Vellum Publishing)
The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig, translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole (Two Lines Press)
The Things We Don’t Do by Andrés Neuman, translated from the the Spanish by Nick Caistor & Lorenza Garcia (Open Letter Books)
Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila translated from the French by Roland Glasser (Deep Vellum Publishing)
Congratulations to translators John McGlynn, Isabel Fargo Cole, Nick Caistor, Lorenza Garcia, and Roland Glasser! Glad to see Deep Vellum represented with two books, as the most recently founded of these presses, all of which specialize in literature in translation.
You’ll find the complete Fiction shortlist as well as the finalists in all the other Firecracker categories on the CLMP website.