Today PEN America announced the lists of finalists for its translation prizes in poetry and prose, each of which come with a $3000 purse. The winners will be announced on Feb. 22, 2017. With no further ado, behold the lists:
Finalists for the PEN Translation Prize (for a book-length translation of prose into English published in 2016)
Confessions by Rabee Jaber (New Directions), translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
Between Life and Death by Yoram Kaniuk (Restless Books), translated from the Hebrew by Barbara Harshav
Angel of Oblivion by Maja Haderlap (Archipelago Books), from the German by Tess Lewis
Justine by Iben Mondrup (Open Letter Books), translated from the Danish by Kerri A. Pierce
The Vegetarian by Han Kang (Hogarth/Crown Publishing), translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith
Finalists for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation (for a book-length translation of poetry into English published in 2016):
Pearl: A New Verse Translation by The Pearl Poet (Liveright/W. W. Norton & Company), translated from the Middle English by Simon Ermitage
Abyss by Ya Hsien (Zephyr Press), translated from the Chinese by John Balcom
Preludes and Fugues by Emmanuel Moses (Oberlin College Press), translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker
In Praise of Defeat: Poems by Abdellatif Laâbi (Archipelago Books), translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith
Absolute Solitude: Selected Poems by Dulce Maria Loynaz (Archipelago Books), translated from the Spanish by James O’Connor
You can find more information about all the shortlisted books in prose and poetry on the PEN website. Congratulations to all the finalists!