Taylor wins Comma Press Emerging Translator Prize

Florence Taylor has won the Emerging Translator Prize for her work translating Chinese into English. 

The competition, which is run annually by indie Comma Press, partnered with Bristol Translates! Summer School, and this year specialised in Chinese. The competition is aimed at translators starting out in their careers and 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 short translation sample.

A recent graduate from the University of Bristol, Taylor scooped first prize, followed by Hongyu Jasmine Zhu and Alison Sharpless in second and third place respectively, with a special commendation for both Camille Byrne and Qing Lu.

Taylor, Zhu and Sharpless will be invited to translate a full story for Comma’s forthcoming The Book of Beijing, edited by Bingbing Shi. Taylor will also receive editorial support and feedback from an in-house editor, as well as seeing her work appear alongside established literary translators.

Amanda Hopkinson, co-director of the summer school, said: “Bristol Translates is delighted, once again, to partner with Comma Press in selecting the translator for their next short story anthology. We are delighted to announce that Florence, Hongyu and Alison have been selected for the forthcoming Book of Beijing.”

“It was a difficult final decision, drawing on a short list of five excellent Chinese translators, and we are confident that The Book of Beijing will enjoy success equal to that of its predecessor, The Book of Shanghai.”

The Book of Beijing will be published by Comma Press in early 2023.