Translator Evriviadis Sofos received the best translation award at the 16th LEA (Literature in Athens) Festival which aims to form cultural and literary bridges between Latin America, Spain, Greece and Portugal through words and letters.
Organized under the auspices of the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, and supported by the Libra Group and Libra Philanthropies, the event was attended by guests from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
At the main festival event which place earlier this week at the Amphitheater of the Acropolis Museum, Sofos was awarded for his translation from Catalan of the book “Uncertain Glory” by Spanish writer Joan Sales, published by Agra Editions in 2023.
The LEA Festival inaugurated the literary translation prize in 2021 with a symbolic prize of 1,000 euros. This year, 35 books were submitted to the LEA festival for judging.
The jury included last year’s winner, translator Christina Theodoropoulou, and Lena Frangopoulou, winner of the 2004 Cervantes.
LEA’s translation award for Catalan novel
Joan Sales’ Uncertain Glory translated by Sofos, is the best novel ever written in Catalan, according to the jury. The backdrop to the novel is the Spanish Civil War, in which Sales fought on the Republican side.
The novel portrays the war in all its brutal complexity and offers no obvious partisan message. As Spanish writer Juan Goytisolo points out in his foreword, Sales “does not root his thinking in certainties but rather in lives exposed to the world’s absurdity, its procession of blood, death and injustice”.
The jury said that the translator dealt very successfully with the philosophical dimensions of the work, the continuous dialectical play and the highly demanding authorial style, in a publication worthy of the fundamental importance of the work.
The jury congratulated Evriviadis Sofos, whom it invited to participate as chairman of the Jury for the next LEA Literary Translation Award.
The LEA Festival is one of the most prominent literary events in Athens since 2008 and the only cultural event in Greece on the theme of Ibero-American literature. Since 2012, it has also been held on the islands of Lefkada Crete, and Evia.
The festival’s program ranges from educational activities such as lectures, book presentations and translation workshops to cultural activities such as film screenings and theatrical performances.
This year’s program touches on many topics including, but not limited to, gender equality and social transformation within writing. The focus of these activities is primarily on the intersection of literature and other aspects of human life.
Most events will be available online or recorded, and entry to most activities will be free until it reaches capacity.
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