Have you ever thought about what it takes to translate a novel from one language to another? The 2015 Best Translated Book Award, presented by Three Percent, rewards translators for what is often times a faceless, yet meaningful, task: “…despite the quality of these books, most translations go virtually unnoticed and never find their audience.” Three Percent is an online website for literature translation and housed by the University of Rochester.
The 2015 Best Translated Book Award – Longlist was just announced and includes 25 fiction titles and 17 poetry collections. The authors and translators are in the running for a $5000 prize for each of them in both categories, fiction and poetry. The shortlist will be announced May 5th and the prizes will be awarded on May 27th at Book Expo.
The finalists come from 23 different places of origin and wrote in 14 different languages.
2015 Best Translated Book Award fiction longlist“Baboon” by Naja Marie Aidt, translated from Danish by Denise Newman (Denmark, Two Lines Press)
“The Author and Me” by Éric Chevillard, translated from French by Jordan Stump (France, Dalkey Archive Press)
“Fantomas Versus the Multinational Vampires” by Julio Cortázar, translated from Spanish by David Kurnick (Argentina, Semiotext(e))
“Pushkin Hills” by Sergei Dovlatov, translated from Russian by Katherine Dovlatov (Russia, Counterpoint Press)
“1914” by Jean Echenoz, translated from French by Linda Coverdale (France, New Press)
“Street of Thieves” by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell (France, Open Letter Books)
“Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay” by Elena Ferrante, translated from Italian by Ann Goldstein (Italy, Europa Editions)
“Things Look Different in the Light” by Medardo Fraile, translated from Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Pushkin Press)
“Monastery” by Eduardo Halfon, translated from Spanish by Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn (Guatemala, Bellevue Literary Press)
“Letters from a Seducer” by Hilda Hilst, translated from Portuguese by John Keene (Brazil, Nightboat Books)
“Harlequin’s Millions” by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from Czech by Stacey Knecht (Czech Republic, Archipelago Books)
“Rambling On: An Apprentice’s Guide to the Gift of the Gab” by Bohumil Hrabal, translated from Czech by David Short (Czech Republic, Karolinum Press)
“The Woman Who Borrowed Memories” by Tove Jansson, translated from Swedish by Thomas Teal and Silvester Mazzarella (Finland, NYRB)
“Works” by Edouard Levé, translated from French by Jan Steyn (France, Dalkey Archive Press)
“Faces in the Crowd” by Valeria Luiselli, translated from Spanish by Christina MacSweeney (Mexico, Coffee House Press)
“Adam Buenosayres” by Leopoldo Marechal, translated from Spanish by Norman Cheadle and Sheila Ethier (Argentina, McGill-Queen’s University Press)
“Last Words from Montmartre” by Qiu Miaojin, translated from Chinese by Ari Larissa Heinrich (Taiwan, NYRB)
“Winter Mythologies and Abbots” by Pierre Michon, translated from French by Ann Jefferson (France, Yale University Press)
“Our Lady of the Nile” by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from French by Melanie Mauthner (Rwanda, Archipelago Books)
“Talking to Ourselves” by Andrés Neuman, translated from Spanish by Nick Caistor and Lorenza Garcia (Argentina, FSG)
“Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret” by Ondjaki, translated from Portuguese by Stephen Henighan (Angola, Biblioasis)
“La Grande” by Juan José Saer, translated from Spanish by Steve Dolph (Argentina, Open Letter Books)
“Paris” by Marcos Giralt Torrente, translated from Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Hispabooks)
“Snow and Shadow” by Dorothy Tse, translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman (Hong Kong, East Slope Publishing)
“The Last Lover” by Can Xue, translated from Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen (China, Yale University Press)
2015 Best Translated Book Award poetry longlist
“Collected Poems” by Rainer Brambach, translated from German by Esther Kinsky (Switzerland, Seagull Books)
“Diorama” by Rocío Cerón, translated from Spanish by Anna Rosenwong (Mexico, Phoeneme)
“Nothing More to Lose” by Najwan Darwish, translated from Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid (Palestine, NYRB)
“Lazy Suzie” by Suzanne Doppelt, translated from French by Cole Swenson (France, Litmus Press)
“Openwork” by André du Bouchet, translated from French by Paul Auster and Hoyt Rogers (France, Yale University Press)
“The Posthumous Life of RW” by Jean Frémon, translated from French by Cole Swensen (France, Omnidawn)
“I Am the Beggar of the World: Landays from Contemporary Afghanistan,” edited and translated from Pashto by Eliza Griswold (Afghanistan, FSG)
“Sorrowtoothpaste Mirrorcream” by Kim Hyesoon, translated from Korean by Don Mee Choi (South Korea, Action Books)
“Where Are the Trees Going?” by Venus Khoury-Ghata, translated from French by Marilyn Hacker (Lebanon, Curbstone)
“Rain of the Future” by Valerie Mejer, translated from Spanish by A. S. Zelman-Doring, Forrest Gander, and C.D. Wright (Mexico, Action Books)
“Diana’s Tree” by Alejandra Pizarnik, translated from Spanish by Yvette Siegert (Argentina, Ugly Duckling)
“Compleat Catalogue of Comedic Novelties” by Lev Rubinstein, translated from Russian by Philip Metres and Tatiana Tulchinsky (Russia, Ugly Duckling)
“In Praise of Poetry” by Olga Sedakova, translated from Russian by Caroline Clark, Ksenia Golubovich and Stephanie Sandler (Russia, Open Letter)
“Soy Realidad” by Tomas Šalamun, translated from Slovenian by Michael Thomas Taren (Slovenia, Dalkey Archive)
“End of the City Map” by Farhad Showghi, translated from German by Rosmarie Waldrop (Germany, Burning Deck)
“Guantanamo” by Frank Smith, translated from French by Vanessa Place (France, Les Figues)
“Salsa” by Hsia Yü, translated from Chinese by Steve Bradbury (Taiwan, Zephyr Press)
Find the New York Times story here!
