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First translation from Polish wins a SoA Translation Prize
Eight literary translators have today been announced as the winners of a shared £15,000 prize fund at the Society of Authors’ (SoA) Translation Prizes.
This year marked the first translation from Polish to win a SoA Translation Prize, with Marta Dziurosz’s translation of Things I Didn’t Throw Out (Daunt Books) by Marcin Wicha winning the TA First Translation Prize. The £2,000 is shared between her and her editors, Željka Marošević and Sophie Missing.
Commenting on the winning translation, judge Ka Bradley said: “This book required a translator of astonishing emotional intelligence and linguistic deftness, and was fortunate to find one.”
Prizes were also awarded for translations from Italian, Spanish, Arabic, French, German and Hebrew.
The winners of the John Florio Prize for translation from Italian were Nicholas Benson and Elena Coda for a translation of My Karst and My City by Scipio Slataper (University of Toronto Press). The judges said: “The scholarship and athleticism required to render this many-textured project into tonal English is nothing short of staggering.”
Taking the prize for for translation from Spanish was Annie McDermott, for her “impeccable” translation of Wars of the Interior by Joseph Zárate (Granta). Meanwhile, the late Humphrey Davies received the award for translation from Arabic, for his translation of The Men Who Swallowed the Sun by Hamdi Abu Golayyel (American University in Cairo Press). Davies shared the award with Robin Moger, for his translation of Slipping by Mohamed Kheir (Two Lines Press).
Damion Searls scooped the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for translation from German for a translation of Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić (Jonathan Cape), while Sarah Ardizzone won the Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation from French, for a translation of Men Don’t Cry by Faïza Guène (Cassava Republic Press).
Finally, winning the prize for translation from Hebrew was Linda Yechiel, for a translation of House on Endless Waters by Emuna Elon (Allen & Unwin, Atlantic Books).
The winners will be celebrated today (8th February) at the Translation Prizes ceremony, held in the British Library and broadcast online. The ceremony will be the first in-venue SoA Translation Prizes since 2020.
