After weeks of reading, researching, voting, taking recommendations, discussing, and passionately defending, we’ve finally come up with our 25-title fiction longlist for the “Best Translated Book of 2008:”<\/p>\n
We will be announcing the 10 finalists on January 27th, with the winning titles announced on February 19th at a party at the Melville House offices. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be highlighting each of these titles one-by-one<\/a> leading up to the announcement of the finalists.<\/p>\n In terms of criteria, we only considered original titles published (or released) in the U.S. in 2008. No retranslations, no reprints, no paperbacks of previously published hardcovers were eligible. And what we’re looking for is the best translated book, not just the best translation. Speaking for all the judges, we believe that a great translated book is a combination of a great original and a great translation, and as such, we’d like to honor the book as a book, as a collaborative effort between author, translator, editor, and publisher. <\/p>\n This year\u2019s panelists included Monica Carter, bookseller at Skylight Books<\/a> and editor of Salonica<\/a> ; Steve Dolph, editor of CALQUE<\/span><\/a> ; Scott Esposito, editor of Conversational Reading<\/a> and The Quarterly Conversation<\/em><\/a> ; Brandon Kennedy, bookseller at Spoonbill & Sugartown<\/a> ; Michael Orthofer, editor of the Literary Saloon<\/a> and Complete Review<\/a> ; Chad W. Post, director of Open Letter Books<\/a> and this blog<\/a> ; E.J. Van Lanen, senior editor of Open Letter Books and Three Percent; and Jeff Waxman, bookseller at the Seminary Co-op Bookstores<\/a> and editor of The Front Table<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n