Arabic translator Piraino wins the Emerging Translator Prize 2023

Arabic translator Cara Piraino has won the Emerging Translator Prize 2023.

Hosted in partnership with Bristol Translates Summer School and the University of Bristol, the annual competition is aimed at emerging translators looking for their first publishing opportunity. Each year, one language is selected and students from the Summer School with a specialism in that language submit a translation sample.

This year’s finalists, including runners-up Talei Lakeland and Katherine Vande Vate, translated a full story for Comma Press’ forthcoming Book of Sana’a, slated for publication in late 2024. They will benefit from the editorial support and feedback of in-house editors Basma Ghalayini and Laura Kasinof, and will get the opportunity to see their work appear alongside established literary translators.

Piraino is an Arabic translator specialising in legal and literary translation. Her work has been used in court cases in multiple countries, and her translation of a prominent family’s story of resistance and loss in the Assyrian genocide is expected to be published in 2024. 

She said: “I’m incredibly hounored to be chosen to bring Afaf al-Qubati’s evocative portrait of Sana’a to English language readers. As a translator just beginning my transition to the literary world, to have my name in print in a Comma Press publication will be a gratifying and valuable recognition.”