The Etxepare-Laboral Kutxa Translation Prize was launched in 2015 by Laboral Kutxa and the Etxepare Basque Institute as a way to honor and promote literary translations made directly from Basque (rather than via Spanish) into other languages. The €4,000 prize recognizes both the quality of the translation and the publisher’s promotional strategy and is split between translator and publisher. Along with this prize, the Etxepare Institute also launched a second initiative along with San Sebastian 2016: a project to teach more literary translators Basque by offering grants for them to study in the Basque Country for six-month stretches.
2018 marks the first time the Etxepare-Laboral Kutxa Translation Prize honors a translation into English. It has gone to translator Amaia Gabantxo for her translation of two poetry collections by Gabriel Aresti, often called the “father of modern Basque poetry,” which appeared in a single volume, Downhill and Rock & Core, published by the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. Congratulations, Amaia!