This week, PEN USA announced the shortlists for its literary awards, and unlike one of the prize categories this year, the Translation shortlist is refreshingly free of scandal, even containing 50% books by female authors, a pleasing statistic, especially given that it’s Women in Translation Month. The award comes with a $1000 purse.
Here are the four shortlisted translators for the PEN USA Translation Award:
- Kareem James Abu-Zeid for Confessions by Rabee Jaber (New Directions)
- Philip Boehm for The Fox Was Ever The Hunter by Herta Müller (Metropolitan)
- Geoffrey Brock for Six Memos For The Next Millennium by Italo Calvino (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Jordan Stump for Cockroaches by Scholastique Mukasonga (Archipelago)
The winner will be announced in early September, followed by a prize ceremony in Beverly Hills in October. Congratulations and best of luck to all four shortlisted translators!