The translation-centric journal Asymptote has sponsored the Close Approximations Translation Prize since 2013, and the 2019 winners have just been announced in the categories Fiction (judged by Edward Gauvin) and Poetry (judged by Eugene Ostashevsky). Each prize comes with a purse of $1000 (with $250 for each of the runners-up) and publication in the journal. Which means that you can have the satisfaction of clicking through to read all the prize-winning translations right now!
Here they are:
The 2019 winner of the Close Approximations Translation Prize in Fiction is Olivia Hellewell for her translation of an excerpt from Katja Perat’s The Masochist. The two runners up are Kevin Gerry Dunn for his translation of an excerpt from Daniela Tarazona’s The Animal on the Rock; and Alison McCullough for her translation of an excerpt from Tore Kvæven’s When the Land Darkens.
In Poetry, the prize has gone to Daniel Owen for his translation of a selection of poems from Afrizal Malna’s Document Shredding Museum; with honorable mentions to Catherine Platt for her translation of a selection of poems from Han Bo’s The Western Days, and J. Bret Maney for his translation of a selection of poems from Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s The River in the Belly.
For more information about the prizes and translations (including the judges’ citations), visit the Asymptote website.
Warm congratulations to all the lauded translators! Oh, and be sure to check out the rest of Asymptote’s new issue with literature from a mind-boggling 35 countries!