Maria Stepanova and Sasha Dugdale (her translator from Russian) feature twice on this year's longlist for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, while Fitzcarraldo Editions, which has had a work longlisted every year of the prize, has four titles nominated in 2021.
The £1,000 prize was established by the University of Warwick in 2017 to address the gender imbalance in translated literature and increase the number of international women’s voices accessible by a British and Irish readership. The 17-strong longlist covers 10 languages with French, German, Japanese and Russian represented more than once, and includes Georgian and Thai for the first time. Eleven publishers are represented on the list, with four featuring for the first time: Les Fugitives, Lolli Editions, Picador and Tilted Axis Press. MacLehose Press is represented on the longlist for the fourth year running.
Also longlisted are previous winners of the prize Annie Ernaux and Alison L Strayer, who won in 2019 with The Years (Fitzcarraldo Editions). Writers Jenny Erpenbeck, Hiromi Kawakami, Esther Kinsky and Yan Ge, and translators Elisabeth Jaquette, Frank Wynne, are all on the longlist for the second time.
Judge Boyd Tonkin said of the 2021 longlist: “Despite a period of obstacles and uncertainties for international publishing, the 115 submissions for this unique award continue to showcase the vitality and variety of translated work by women writers from around the world now published in the UK. These longlisted titles not only span cultures and continents from China to Georgia, and from Thailand to Poland, they also cover a spectrum of literary forms. The list includes poetry, fiction of many kinds – from futuristic fables to family sagas – as well as a range of imaginative non-fiction, from family memoir and biographical essay to social history.
“In every case, the artistry of the translator keeps pace with the invention of the author. Each book created its own world in its own voice. The judges warmly recommend them all.”
Prize co-ordinators Dr Holly Langstaff and Dr Chantal Wright of the School of Visual Arts, Performance & Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick added: “The variety of work submitted to the prize in 2021 demonstrates a continued commitment on the part of the translation community to ensure that a wider range of women’s voices from across the world are heard. The Women in Translation Month initiative, started by the book blogger Meytal Radzinski in 2014 and taking place every August, continues to be embraced by readers, translators and publishers. The work of independent publishers in particular to promote writing by women in translation is evident both from this year’s list of eligible submissions and the longlist. It is wonderful to see a range of source languages and genres on the longlist, which demonstrates the breadth of high-quality writing by women available in translation and published during a year of upheaval.”
The shortlist for the prize will be published in early November. The winner will be announced at a ceremony on 24th November. Last year the prize was awarded to The Eighth Life (Scribe UK), written by Nino Haratischvili and translated from German by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin.
The full longlist features:
The Pear Field by Nana Ekvtimishvili, translated from Georgian by Elizabeth Heighway (Peirene Press)
A Girl's Story by Annie Ernaux, translated from French by Alison L. Strayer (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Not a Novel by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from German by Kurt Beals (Granta)
Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (Tilted Axis Press)
People from My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Ted Goossen (Granta)
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Picador)
Grove by Esther Kinsky, translated from German by Caroline Schmidt (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Camille Laurens, translated from French by Willard Wood (Les Fugitives)
Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, translated from French by Melanie Mauthner (Daunt Books Publishing)
Arid Dreams by Duanwad Pimwana, translated from Thai by Mui Poopoksakul (Tilted Axis Press)
The Employees by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken (Lolli Editions)
An Inventory of Losses by Judith Schalansky, translated from German by Jackie Smith (MacLehose Press)
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Ellis Island: A People's History by Małgorzata Szejnert, translated from Polish by Sean Gasper Bye (Scribe UK)
In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
War of the Beasts and the Animals by Maria Stepanova, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale (Bloodaxe Books)
The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter, translated from French by Frank Wynne (Picador)
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