The selection committee for the French PEN Club Poetry in Translation Prize for the year 2024, chaired by Linda Maria Baros and including Alexis Bernaut, Sylvestre Clancier, Jalal El Hakmaoui as well as Jean-Philippe Raîche, has finalized its list of nominations.
Selection final of the French PEN Club Poetry Prize in Translation:
Kaveh Akbar, Pilgrim bell, translated from English (United States) by Marine Cornuet, Le Castor Astral, 2024.
Eka Kevanishvili, The transport of the poor will not stop anywhere, translated from Georgian by Maya Katsanashvili, Les Carnets du Dessert de Lune, 2023.
Dambudzo Marechera, Cemetery of the Spirit, translated from English (Zimbabwe) by Pierre Leroux and Xavier Garnier, Project-îles, 2024.
Ron RashWaking the dead, translated from English (United States) by Gaëlle Fonlupt, Corlevour, 2024.
Remember the flight. Female voices of Persian-speaking poetry, anthology translated from Persian (Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan) by Franck Merger and Niloufar Sadighi, maelstrÖm reEvolution, 2023.
The jury for the Novel-story-short story prize in translation from the French PEN Club, composed of Carole Mesrobian (president), Nedim Gürsel, Josée Kamoun, Françoise Toraille, Marie Vrinat-Nikolov and Françoise Wuilmart, has made its final selection for the year 2024.
Final selection for the French PEN Club Novel-Story-Short Story Prize in translation:
Who is L’Horizon, Copper beech, translated from German (Switzerland) by Rose Labourie, Julliard, 2023. Gennaro
Serious, Gibraltar Nocturne, translated from Italian by Maïa Rosenberger, Éditions L’orma, 2023.
Sydney Hegele, The Marshtranslated from English by Kama La Mackerel, L’Interligne, 2024.
Lorina Balteanu, This rope that ties me to the earth, translated from Romanian by Marily le Nir, Éditions des Syrtes, 2024.
The jury for the French PEN Club Translation Essay Prize, composed of: Guillaume Métayer (president), Anne Duprat, Luba Jurgenson, Otto Pfersmann and Marc Cerisuelo, has made its final selection for the year 2024.
Selection of the French PEN Club Essay Prize in Translation:
Rika Benveniste, Louna. Historical Biography Essaytranslated from modern Greek by Loïc Marcou, Éditions Signes et Tags, 2024.
Bathsheba Demuth, Land-Sea, An environmental history of the Bering Strait, translated from English (United States) by Laurence Richard, Payot, 2023.
Julian Jackson, The Pétain – Vichy trial before its judges, translated from English (Great Britain) by Marie-Anne de Béru, Seuil, 2024.
Elena Kostioutchenko, My beloved Russiatranslated from Russian by Emma Lavigne and Anne-Marie Tatsis-Botton, Éditions Noir sur Blanc, 2024.
The jury for the French PEN Club Theater Prize in Translation, composed of Fabienne Leloup (president), Arnaud Décarsin, Patricia Gleville, Dominique Paquet and Fulvio Caccia, has made its final selection for the year 2024.
Selection of the Theater Prize in translation from the French PEN Club:
Dino Pešut, The Erinyes, daughters of despairtranslated from Croatian by Nicolas Raljević, Éditions L’Espace d’un instant, 2023.
Gergana Dimitrova and Zdrava Kamenova, Cosmos Tango followed by Shelter for Sheep and Dreamstranslated from Bulgarian by Roumiana Stantcheva, Éditions L’Espace d’un instant, 2023.
The Prizes will be awarded on December 11, 2024, at 6 p.m., at Reid Hall – 4, rue de Chevreuse, 75006 Paris.
Since 2022, the French PEN Club Translation Awards intend to highlight the importance of translation in the global literary interweaving. These annual awards reward translators for their ability to navigate between literary genres — novel, essay, poetry, and theater — and to enrich French-speaking literature.
Specialist juries evaluate style, syntax and fidelity to the original texts while emphasizing the importance of translation as an art form that shapes intercultural connections.
The 2023 winners of the French PEN Club Translation Prize have been announced in the various categories. In essay, Valérie Le Plouhinec was rewarded for her translation of In the name of black people by Robert Penn Warren, published by Le Cherche midi publisher, with a special mention attributed to Odile Demange for La Paix ou la Guerre by Mikhaïl Chichkine, published by Editions Noir sur Blanc.
In the Novel, Stories, Short Stories category, Marie Vrinat-Nikolov won the prize for Sworn virgin by Rene Karabash at Belleville éditions, while Lucie Modde received a mention for L‘Hotel du Cygne de Zhang Yueran chez Zulma.
READ – The French PEN Club inaugurates new translation awards
For theater, Tania Moguilevskaia and Gilles Morel were distinguished for Iranian conference by Ivan Viripaev, and Edouard Pons obtained a mention for When the snow falls by Javier Vicedo Alós. In poetry, Alexis Bernaut was honored for The starlight keeps fading by Robert Bringhurst, and François-Michel Durazzo received a mention for This thin dividing line by Silvia Eugenia Castillero.
Find the list of French and French-speaking literary prizes
Photo credits: Photography: illustration, Joe Lodge, CC BY 2.0
By Hocine Bouhadjera
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