From left are Adriana Hunter, Kate Briggs, and Amanda Quinn
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Deadline to Enter: April
In a transatlantic partnership called, the United Kingdom’s Peirene Press and the United States’ Two Lines Press at San Francisco’s Center for the Art of Translation have created the Stevns Translation Prize to support emerging translators in their first translation of a full-length work of fiction.
The pattern chosen is that each year, a different language and book will be selected, and entrants will be invited to translate an extract. The winner is to be offered a contract to translate the entire book with the support of a mentorship with an experienced translator and up to six weeks of work time in the French Pyrenees—and apparently French is the language chosen for this year’s kickoff of the program.
Established in 2018 with the support of benefactor Martha Stevns—that is the correct spelling of her surname—the prize is open to any translator older than 18 who has not yet published a full work of fiction in translation.
The winning translator will receive a £3,700 (US$4,606) commission to translate Avant que j’oublie by Anne Pauly (Éditions Verdier, 2019, winner of the Prix du Livre Inter and Prix Robert Walser and shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, the Prix Femina, and the Prix Wepler.
This year, the effect of the dual administration of the prize package is intended to ensure publication in both the UK and North America.
The prize package also includes a month-long translation retreat in an 18th-century mill house in the foothills of the French Pyrenees; a six-month mentorship with an established literary translator, and travel expenses of up to $1000.)
This year’s mentorship will be translator Adriana Hunter, who will be joined in selecting the Stevns Prize translator by Rotterdam-based writer, editor, and translator Kate Briggs, and by Shakespeare and Company bookshop (Paris) senior bookseller leading the bookstore’s French literature in English sections.
More about Martha Stevns and the award can be found here.
Guidelines for the Stevns Prize can be found here.
More from Publishing Perspectives on literary translation and translators is here, more on literary translation funding is here, and more on book and publishing awards is here.
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