Nominations for the 2014 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature

The deadline to nominate people for this year’s Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature (run by Words Without Borders) is coming up fast . . . If you want to nominate someone, you have to fill out the form below and email it to Karen Phillips (karen [at] wordswithoutborders.org) before Friday, May 2nd.

Here’s all the information:

The Ottaway Award

Named in honor of the first chair of Words without Borders, the James H. Ottaway, Jr. Award for the Promotion of International Literature recognizes individuals who have taken extraordinary steps to advance literature in translation in the United States. In accordance with the mission of Words without Borders, the awardee will be selected on the basis of his or her efforts to build cultural understanding through the publication and promotion of international literature. In 2013, esteemed book editor Drenka Willen received the inaugural Ottaway Award. The 2014 award will be presented at our annual gala dinner in New York on Tuesday, October 28, 2014.

Nomination Instructions

We welcome your nomination of an editor, publisher, agent, philanthropist, or other translation advocate who has taken extraordinary steps to advance literature in translation in the United States. Please note that the Ottaway Award is not intended to recognize a particular work or works of translation. All nominations will be kept confidential.

Please complete the form below and submit it by Friday, May 2, 2014 via email to Karen Phillips (Karen [at] wordswithoutborders.org).

I. NOMINATOR INFORMATION

1. Name:

2. Affiliation (if applicable):

3. Contact email:

4. Contact phone:

II. NOMINEE INFORMATION

1. Name:

2. Affiliation (if applicable):

3. On the following page, please briefly describe the nominee’s achievements in promoting international literature:

The deadline for nomination submissions is Friday, May 2, 2014. Please send nominations and direct questions about award eligibility to Karen Phillips at karen@wordswithoutborders.org.

About Words without Borders

Founded in 2003, Words without Borders promotes cultural understanding through the translation, publication, and promotion of the finest contemporary international literature. Our publications and programs open doors for readers of English around the world to the multiplicity of viewpoints, richness of experience, and literary perspective on world events offered by writers in other languages. We seek to connect international writers to the general public, to students and educators, and to print and other media and to serve as a primary online location for a global literary conversation.

Every month we publish eight to twelve new works by international writers at wordswithoutborders.org. We have published works by Nobel Prize laureates J.M.G Le Clézio and Herta Müller, Mahmoud Darwish, Etgar Keret, Per Petterson, Fadhil Al-Azzawi, W.G. Sebald, and Ma Jian, as well as hundreds of new and rising international writers. To date we have published well over 1,700 pieces from 120 countries and 101 languages.

Words without Borders is building an education program that will provide educators with resources and content to more readily incorporate contemporary international literature into their classes. The program, Words without Borders Campus, will include a second Web site, already in development, as well as an ambitious author-classroom program that facilitates direct interactions between authors and students. We hope that in reaching out to students we can create a passion for international literature, a curiosity about other cultures, and inspire true world citizens.

In addition, we’ve partnered with publishing houses to release print anthologies. To date we have released Words without Borders: The World through the Eyes of Writers (Anchor Books); Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations (The New Press); The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain (Open Letter); The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry; Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes of the Middle East; and our first e-anthology, Words without Borders: The Best of the First Ten Years.