This is the second year of the new National Book Award for Translated Literature, and the semi-finalists have just been announced! I’m delighted to see such a strong list of books I immediately want to read my way through. This year’s panel of judges include Keith Gessen, Elisabeth Jaquette, Katie Kitamura, Idra Novey (Chair), and Shuchi Saraswat. The $10,000 purse for this prestigious award is evenly split between author and translator.
Here’s the 2019 longlist:
Naja Marie Aidt, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl’s Book
Translated from Danish by Denise Newman
Coffee House Press
Eliane Brum, The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil’s Everyday Insurrections
Translated from Portuguese by Diane Grosklaus Whitty
Graywolf Press
Nona Fernández, Space Invaders
Translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
Graywolf Press
Vigdis Hjorth, Will and Testament
Translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund
Verso Fiction / Verso Books
Khaled Khalifa, Death is Hard Work
Translated from Arabic by Leri Price
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers
László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming
Translated from Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet
New Directions
Scholastique Mukasonga, The Barefoot Woman
Translated from French by Jordan Stump
Archipelago Books
Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police
Translated from Japanese by Stephen Snyder
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Pajtim Statovci, Crossing
Translated from Finnish by David Hackston
Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
More information on the books can be found on the National Book Foundation website. The finalists will be announced on Oct. 8. Congratulations to all the longlisted translators!