2019 Society of Authors Translation Prize Shortlists Announced

The Translators Association (TA) in the UK, a division of the Society of Authors, has just announced the shortlists for the various translation prizes it gives out every year. The prizes themselves will be announced in early February. All these prizes celebrate works that were published in the UK in 2018, and all of these books are already highly recommended (or they wouldn’t have made the shortlists), so why not pick your favorite category and start reading? Maybe you’ll even pick the winning books ahead of the judges!

Behold the lists:

The TA First Translation Prize, which goes to a first-time translator of a book-length work and their editor:

  • Sarah Booker and their editor Lauren Rosemary Hook for a translation of The Iliac Crest by Cristina Rivera Garza (And Other Stories). Translated from Spanish.
  • Natascha Bruce and their editor Jeremy  Tiang  for a translation of Lonely Face by Yeng Pway Ngon (Balestier Press). Translated from Chinese (Singapore).
  • Morgan Giles and their editor Saba Ahmed for a translation of Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri (Tilted Axis Press). Translated from Japanese.
  • Ellen Jones and their editors Fionn Petch and Carolina Orloff for a translation of Trout, Belly Up by Rodrigo Fuentes (Charco Press). Translated from Spanish.
  • William Spence and their editor  Tomasz Hoskins  o r  a translation of The Promise: Love and Loss in Modern China by XinRan Xue (I. B. Tauris). Translated from Mandarin.
  • Charlotte Whittle and their editor Bella Bosworth for a translation of People in the Room by Norah Langé (And Other Stories). Translated from Spanish.

The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translations from German:

  • Margot Bettauer Dembo for a translation of The Seventh Cross by Anna Seghers (Virago Press)
  • Katy Derbyshire  for a translation of Gentleman Jack by Angela Steidele (Serpent’s Tail)
  • Iain Galbraith  for a translation of River by Esther Kinsky (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
  • Karen Leeder  for a translation of Thick of It by Ulrike Almut Sandig (Seagull Books)
  • Simon Pare  for a translation of The Flying Mountain by Christoph Ransmayr (Seagull Books)
  • Damion Searls for a translation of Anniversaries: From Year in the Life of Cresspahlby Uwe Johnson (New York Review Books)

The Scott Moncrieff Prize for translations from French:

  • Linda Coverdale for a translation of The Old Slave and the Mastiff by Patrick Chamoiseau (Dialogue Books)
  • Penny  Hueston  for a translation of Our Life in the Forest by Marie Darrieussecq (Text Publishing)
  • Adriana Hunter  for a translation of Women at Sea by Catherine Poulain (Jonathan Cape)
  • Tina  Kover for a translation of Disoriental by Négar Djavadi (Europa Editions)
  • Geoffrey Strachan for a translation of Tropic of Violence by Nathacha Appanah (MacLehose Press)
  • David Warriner  for a translation of We Were the Salt of the Sea by Roxanne Bouchard (Orenda Books)

The Premio Valle Inclán Prize for translations from Spanish:

  • Nick Caistor for a translation of Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Mario Benedetti (Penguin Classics)
  • Charlotte Coombe for a translation of Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo (Charco Press)
  • William Gregory for a translation of The Oberon Anthology of Contemporary Spanish Plays by Borja Ortiz de Gondra, Blanca Doménech, Víctor Sánchez Rodríguez, Vanessa Montfort, and Julio Escalada (Oberon Books)
  • Sophie Hughes for a translation of The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zeran (And Other Stories)
  • Jessica Sequeira for a translation of Land of Smoke by Sara Gallardo (Pushkin Press)

The Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for translations from Arabic:

  • Marilyn Booth for a translation of Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (Sandstone Press)
  • Humphrey Davies for a translation of My Name is Adam: Children of the Ghetto  
  • Volume 1 by Elias Khoury (MacLehose)
  • Leri Price for a translation of Death is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa (Faber & Faber)
  • Jonathan Wright for a translation of Jokes for the Gunman by Mazen Maarouf
  • (Granta Books)

The Vodel Prize for translations from Dutch:

  • David Doherty for a translation of Monte Carlo by Peter Terrin (MacLehose Press)
  • Antoinette Fawcett for a translation of Bird Cottage by Eva Meijer (Pushkin Press)
  • Nancy Forest-Flier for a translation of The Story of Shit by Midas Dekkers (Text Publishing)
  • Michele Hutchison for a translation of Stage Four by Sander Kollaard (Amazon Crossing)

The TLS-Risa Domb/Porjes Prize for translations from Hebrew:

  • Peter C. Applebaum for a translation of Hell on Earth by Avigdor Hameiri (Wayne State University Press)
  • Jessica Cohen for a translation of A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman (Vintage)
  • Nicholas de Lange for a translation of Judas by Amos Oz (Vintage)
  • Rachel Tzvia Back for a translation of On the Surface of Silence by Lea Goldberg (Hebrew Union College Press)

Big congratulations and best of luck to all other translators competing for prizes. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London in February 2020.

More information about all the prizes, judges, awards ceremony, and shortlisted books can be found on the Society of Authors website.

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