The Guggenheim Foundation has been naming fellows in the category “Translation” since 2008, but for some reason I’ve managed not to blog that fact until now (even the year when I myself received one). But it’s time to right that wrong, apropos of the 2018 fellowship awarded to Esther Allen for the translation of The Silentiary (first published in 1964) and The Suicides (1968), two novels by Antonio Di Benedetto (1922-1986), who was himself a Guggenheim Fellow in 1973. Allen won the 2017 National Translation Award in Prose for her translation of Di Benedetto’s novel Zama. It’ll be great to have these two books in her translation to follow it up.
And here’s a complete list of all the Guggenheim translation fellows between 2008 and 2018:
Esther Allen 2018
Ross Benjamin 2015
Susan Bernofsky 2014
Philip Boehm 2013
William Chittick 2014
Peter Constantine 2010
Carl W. Ernst 2009
Andrew Frisardi 2013
Howard Goldblatt 2009
Ann Goldstein 2008
Edith Grossman 2008
Bill Johnston 2013
Tess Lewis 2015
Margaret M. Mitchell 2010
Sachiko Murata 2011
Bill Porter 2011
Sarah Ruden 2010
Damion Searls 2012
Richard Sieburth 2012
Val Vinokur 2008
And as Esther Allen recently pointed out, some great translators have received Guggenheim support under other categories, such as Peter Cole (Poetry, 2002), William Weaver (Theatre Arts, 1979) and Burton Pike (German and Scandinavian Literature, 1966).
More information about each recipient (including the current one) and their projects can be found on the Guggenheim Foundation website. Big congratulations, Esther!