This week PEN America (the institution formerly known as the PEN American Center) announced the longlists for the PEN Translation Prize (for a book-length translation of prose, judged this year by Jennifer Grotz, Kyoo Lee, and Rowan Ricardo Phillips) and the PEN Poetry in Translation Award (judged by Mara Faye Lethem, Jeremy Tiang, Elizabeth Lowe, Annie Tucker, and Dennis Washburn). The shortlists will be announced on Jan. 18, and the winners on Feb. 22. Have you got holiday shopping to do? How about a lovely translated book hand-selected by these expert judges for your enjoyment? Or maybe you just need a break from the horrific specter of (political) life in the United States. Again, international literature is your best friend. Check out these beautiful lists:
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation Longlist:
Pearl: A New Verse Translation, translated from the Middle English by Simon Armitage
Abyss by Ya Hsien, translated from the Chinese by John Balcom
Voronezh Notebooks by Osip Mandelstam, translated from the Russian by Andrew Davis
Building the Barricade by Anna Swir, translated from the Polish by Piotr Florczyk
Algaravias by Waly Salomao, translated from the Portuguese by Maryam Monalisa Gharavi
Preludes and Fugues by Emmanuel Moses, translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker
Tale of Ise, translated from the Japanese by Peter MacMillan
In Praise of Defeat: Poems by Abdellatif Laâbi, translated from the French by Donald Nicholson Smith
Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce Maria Loynaz, translated from the Spanish by James O’Connor
Twenty Girls to Envy Me: Selected Poems from Orit Gidali, translated from the Hebrew by Marcela Sulak
PEN Translation Prize Longlist:
Confessions by Rabee Jaber, translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
The Fox Was Ever the Hunter by Herta Muller, translated from the German by Philip Boehm
Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
Between Life and Death by Yoram Kaniuk, translated from the Hebrew by Barbara Harshav
One Hundred and Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin, translated from the French by Christiana Hills
Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap, translated from the German by Tess Lewis
Justine by Iben Mondrup, translated from the Danish by Kerri A. Pierce
The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke, translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith
Limbo Beirut by Hilal Chouman, translated from the Arabic by Anna Ziajka Stanton
Congratulations to all the longlisted translators and their authors!