2019 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Winners

The PEN/Heim Translation Fund grants have becoming progressively more competitive year after year, and year saw a record 237 applications submitted. These grants, made possible by a donation by legendary translator and translation advocate Michael Henry Heim, support translations-in-progress, often work by first-time or otherwise emerging translators. The list of grant-winning projects each year is a great place for publishers shopping for new translations and translators to find new talent. This year’s advisory board – including John Balcom, Peter Constantine, Katie Dublinski, Ben Moser, Mary Ann Newman, Alta Price, Jenny Wang Medina, Max Weiss, Natasha Wimmer, and Board Chair Samantha Schnee – selected 10 projects translated from French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Indonesian, Chinese, Danish, and Hungarian, plus one translated from Italian for the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature always given out at the same time. (The grants – which vary with the stock market and the number of projects selected – are worth $3500 this year, with $5000 going to the winner of the Italian Literature grant.) This year, 45% of the projects are by female authors (almost good enough), and 10 are still available for publication. Check them out!

Bruna Dantas Lobato’s translation from the Portuguese of Moldy Strawberries: Stories by Caio Fernando Abreu

Stephen Epstein’s translation from the Indonesian of The Wandering: Choose Your Own Red Shoes Adventure by Intan Paramaditha

Misha Hoekstra’s translation from the Danish of New Passengers by Tine Høeg

Lucas Klein’s translation from the Chinese of Words as Grains: New and Selected Poems of Duo Duo

Simon Leser’s translation from the French of Of Our Wounded Brothers by Joseph Andras

Emma Lloyd’s translation from the Spanish of Of Pearls and Scars by Pedro Lemebel

Ottilie Mulzet’s translation from the Hungarian of Gábor Schein’s Swedish (2nd, revised edition)

Catherine Nelson’s translation from the Spanish of Tea Rooms: Working Women by Luisa Carnés

Julia Powers’s translation from the Portuguese of Selected Poems of Hilda Hilst

Lara Vergnaud’s translation from the French of The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai

Hope Campbell Gustafson’s translation from the Italian of The Commander of the River by Ubah Cristina Ali Farah

More information about the translators and their translations are available on the PEN America website. Congratulations to all this year’s PEN/Heim winners!

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