French-American Foundation and Florence Gould Foundation Announce Translation Prize Finalists [Spoiler Alert: Margueritte Duras's L'AMOUR isn't one]

In a press release today, the French American Foundation and Florence Gould Foundation announced the finalists for their 27th annual translation prize for one work of fiction and one work of non-fiction.

According to the release, the foundations received 84 submissions to the Translation Prize, from over 40 publishers. This year, the list of finalists saw a massive increase in number. The 2012 list consisted of only three titles and translators—one in the fiction category, and two in the non-fiction category. In fact, with 10 titles in total, 2013 saw the highest number of winners in the history of the award. (The full list of past winners is here.) Hopefully, the foundations’ ability to award multiple translators will keep thriving, thus creating opportunities for a continued and healthy mix (and rotation) of well-known translators, and translators who are slowly working up their repertoire or are only just emerging.

From the release:

One Fiction and one Non-Fiction prize will be presented at the annual Awards Ceremony on May 22 in New York. Each winning translator will receive a $10,000 prize funded by the Florence Gould Foundation.

The jury, which includes Linda Asher, David Bellos, Linda Coverdale, Emmanuelle Ertel and Lorin Stein, has selected the best English translations of French works published in 2013. The 10 finalists form a prestigious and diverse group that includes books by award-winning authors and important French works available in English and in the United States for the first time.

Though every press would, obviously, love to see their title on the docket, this year’s list of translators and titles really is a good one, and even includes one of our newest author-friends, Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès, who was at the University of Rochester last fall to kick off our Reading the World Conversation Series, and is a fantastic person and amazing writer.

More info on the Translation Prize can be found at the French-American Foundation’s website.

The full list of fiction finalists is:

• Edward Gauvin for his translation of The Conductor and Other Tales by Jean Ferry (Wakefield Press)

• Adriana Hunter for her translation of Electrico W by Hervé Le Tellier (Other Press)

• Mike Mitchell for his translation of Where Tigers Are at Home by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès (Other Press)

• Jordan Stump for his translation of All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (Two Lines Press)

• Chris Turner for his translation of No Fixed Abode by Marc Augé (Seagull Books)

The list of non-fiction finalists can be seen here.