The University of Warwick

10/31/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/31/2024 08:10

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Announces the 2024 Shortlist

Six titles have been shortlisted for the 2024 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

The £1000 prize was established by the University of Warwick in 2017 to address the gender imbalance in translated literature and to increase the number of international women's voices accessible by a British and Irish readership.

Now in its seventh year, the prize has received 147 eligible entries representing a record-breaking 35 languages - the largest number of languages represented in one year to date.

The list of shortlisted titles, in alphabetical order, is as follows:

  • Han Kang, Greek Lessons, translated from Korean (South Korea) by Deborah Smith and e. yaewon, published by Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House UK

  • Jenny Erpenbeck, Kairos, translated from German (Germany) by Michael Hofmann, published by Granta

  • Nelly Sachs, Revelation Freshly Erupting, translated from German (Germany) by Andrew Shanks, published by Carcanet Press

  • Marie Darrieussecq, Sleepless, translated from French (France) by Penny Hueston, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions

  • Clarice Lispector, Too Much of Life: Complete Chronicles, translated from Portuguese (Brazil) by Robin Patterson and Margaret Jull Costa, published by Penguin Press

  • Urszula Honek, White Nights, translated from Polish (Poland) by Kate Webster, published by MTO Press

The winner will be announced on the 21 November 2024 at a ceremony in London. The winning author and translator will receive £1000.

The judges said of the shortlist in 2024, "In addition to the special showcase it provides for women writers in translation from around the world, this vital prize also stands out for its freedom to celebrate outstanding achievement in every corner of the literary scene.

"This year's genre-spanning shortlist features not just novels and poems but short stories, creative memoir and newspaper columns. That huge diversity of form also means that the judges can salute the many facets and varied challenges of the translator's art."

"From Brazil to South Korea to Poland, we honour superbly translated work from great writers of the present and the recent past. Of the two Nobel Prize winners selected, one is the most recent laureate - but the other remains, until now, virtually unknown in the English-speaking world."

"The award continues to offer a unique platform for literary revelations and discoveries across language, culture, space and time."

Prize coordinator, Dr Holly Langstaff of the University of Warwick's School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures, comments, "These six shortlisted titles reflect the variety of submissions made to the prize this year, from a record number of languages. For the first time in 2024, titles published by Carcanet Press and MTO Press feature on the shortlist. This list demonstrates the excellent work done by translators and publishers - small, medium and large - and their continued commitment to a vibrant and enriching translating culture in the UK and Ireland."

Last year the prize was awarded to 'Your Wish Is My Command', written, illustrated and translated from Arabic by Deena Mohamed and published by Scribe UK.

The prize is judged by Amanda Hopkinson, Boyd Tonkin, and Susan Bassnett. The 2024 shortlist was selected from a longlist of 15 titles and includes six titles from five languages, with German represented twice.

The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation is generously supported in 2024 by the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick and the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For more info contact Katherine Beauchamp, Communications Officer
[email protected]

Tickets for journalists or media interested in attending the prize ceremony on 21st November in The Shard are available.
Please contact Dr Holly Langstaff at [email protected]

More details are available at the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation webpage.