2015 National Translation Award Long List at Words without Borders

For the last seventeen years, the American Literary Translators Association has given out the annual National Translation Award, the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of the source text and its relation to the finished English work. For the last twelve years, Words without Borders has been presenting innovative and undiscovered voices in translation to English-language readers. So it's no surprise that we've published many of the names that have made this year's long list for the NTA, some for the first time in English. Below you can find a guide to this work from our vast archive spanning 128 countries and 106 languages.

Prose

Conversations (New Directions, 2014), César Aira and Katherine Silver (translator) – Argentina
César Aira in the WWB archive:
From “The Literature Conference” (February 2004)

Katherine Silver in the WWB archive:
Dispatches blog: 2015 Man Booker International Questionnaire with Katherine Silver (May 2015)
“Darkness” by Yolanda Patin (March 2014: Venezuela)
Dispatches blog: “The Translator Relay with Katherine Silver” (November 2012)
“Survivors,” from the novel The Ears of the Wolf by Antonio Ungar (September 2009: Walking the World)
“Music, Maestro Berenson, and Yours Truly” by Julio Ramón Ribeyro (November 2008: Immigration)
From Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya (October 2006: Latin Labyrinths: The Next Generation)

New Waw, Saharan Oasis (Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, 2014), Ibrahim al-Koni and William M. Hutchins (translator) – Libya
Ibrahim al-Koni in the WWB archive:
Dispatches blog: 2015 Man Booker International Questionnare with Ibrahim al-Koni (May 2015)
“The Right Course” (July 2006: The Magic Lanterns Of Libyan Literature)

William M. Hutchins in the WWB archive:
“Chicago: Present-Day Paradise, Future Magic” by Mahmoud Saeed (September 2014: Writing Exile)
“Bushrawi . . . Ranjini ” by Taleb Alrefai (July 2014: Migrant Labor)
“Salman and the Mule Suicides” by Najem Wali (April 2013: Iraq, Ten Years Later)
“A Portal in Space” by Mahmoud Saeed (April 2013: Iraq, Ten Years Later)
“The Arab Altar” by Abd al-Khaliq al-Rikabi (April 2013: Iraq, Ten Years Later)
More William M. Hutchins in the WWB archive

End of Days (New Directions, 2014), Jenny Erpenbeck
and Susan Bernofsky (translator) – Germany
Jenny Erpenbeck in the WWB archive:
From The Book of Words (January 2007: Look Back In Anticipation: Translation Prize Winners)

Susan Bernofsky in the WWB archive:
Afterword to “The Assistant” (June 2008: The Global Gourmet)
From The Book of Words (January 2007: Look Back In Anticipation: Translation Prize Winners)
From Lord of the Horns by Matthias Politycki (December 2005: Women On The Verge (Of European Union))
“What Darkness Was” by Inka Parei (November 2005: Seoul Searching)
“Hair Tax” by Yoko Tawada (April 2005: PEN World Voices)

The Woman Who Borrowed Memories (New York Review Books, 2014),
Tove Jansson; Thomas Teal & Silvester Mazzarella (translators) – Finland
Silvester Mazzarella in the WWB archive:
“Mine-wife” by Karin Tidbeck (January 2015: Alternate Pasts: International Uchronia)
From “Pol Pot's Smile” by Peter Fröberg Idling (October 2009: Foreign Correspondents: International Reporting)

The Mad and the Bad (New York Review Books, 2014), Jean-Patrick Manchette
and Donald Nicholson-Smith (translator)
Donald Nicholson-Smith in the WWB archive:
Dispatches blog: “The Translator Relay with Donald Nicholson-Smith” (March 2015)

Why I Killed My Best Friend (Open Letter Books, 2014), Amanda Michalopoulou and Karen Emmerich (translator) – Greece
Amanda Michalopoulou in the WWB archive:
“Woman in Tree” (July 2012: New Writing from Japan)
“Light” (May 2008: Public Lives, Private Lives)
“The Way You Might Break a Finger” (October 2004: Romanian Riches)

Karen Emmerich in the WWB archive:
“Piece by Piece They're Taking My World Away” by Christos Ikonomou (July 2014: Migrant Labor)
“Tomorrow” by Auguste Corteau
From “Overdue Loans” by Petros Markaris (July 2012: New Writing from Japan)
“Woman in Tree” by Amanda Michalopoulou (July 2012: New Writing from Japan)
“Someone Around Here Is Looking for an Equation” by Dimitris Athinakis (October 2010: Beyond Borges: Argentina Now)
M ore Karen Emmerich in the WWB archive

This Is the Garden (Open Letter Books, 2014), Giulio Mozzi
and Elizabeth Harris (translator) – Italy
Giulio Mozzi in the WWB archive:
“Tana” (April 2012: Sex)

Elizabeth Harris in the WWB archive:
“Scandal” by Aldo Nove (January 2015: Alternate Pasts: International Uchronia)
From “You Don't Know: A Mafia Dictionary” by Andrea Camilleri (December 2012: (Non-Scandinavian) Crime)
“Tana” by Giulio Mozzi (April 2012: Sex)
“Moving Like Geckos” by Marco Di Marco (June 2011: The Queer Issue II)
“Making a Scene” by Domenico Starnone (March 2011: At the Movies)
More Elizabeth Harris in the WWB archive

La Grande (Open Letter Books, 2014), Juan Jose Saer
and Steve Dolph (translator) – Argentina
“Shadows across Frosted Glass” (April 2008: Olympic Voices from China)
From The Boundless River (February 2004: Prose Tangos)

Steve Dolph in the WWB archive:
“Wings, Two for One” by Triunfo Arciniegas (February 2008 issue: The Graphic World: (Worth) Ten Thousand Words, Part II)

Other:
Review of La Grande in WWB (June 2014: The Queer Issue, Volume V)

Anna Karenina (Yale University Press, 2014), Leo Tolstoy and Marian Schwartz – Russia
Marian Schwartz in the WWB archive:
“None of Your Business” by Natalia Klyuchareva (April 2011 issue: Writing from Quebec)
“From 2017” by Olga Slavnikova (December 2009: Out of This World: International Science Fiction)
“Calligraphy Lesson” by Mikhail Shishkin (July 2007: The Russians Are Coming)
“The Man Who Couldn't Die” by Olga Slavnikova (July 2007: The Russians Are Coming)
“The Wondrous Deer of the Eternal Hunt” by Svetlana Alexievich (April 2005: PEN World Voices)

The Last Lover (Yale University Press, 2014), Can Xue
and Annelise F. Wasmoen (translator) – China
Can Xue in the WWB archive:
“'The Fair-haired Princess' and Serious Literature” (November 2014: Contemporary Czech Prose)
“The Old Cicada” (November 2013: Celebrating Our First Ten Years)
“About the Young Writer Zheng Xialou” (December 2011: The Fantastic)
“The Bane of My Existence” (March 2007: The World Through The Eyes Of Writers: Without Borders, Between Covers)

Running Through Beijing (Two Lines Press), Xu Zechen
and Eric Abrahamsen (translator) – China
Xu Zechen in the WWB archive:
“Throwing Out the Baby” (April 2012: Sex)

Eric Abrahamsen in the WWB archive:
“Broken” (August 2008: Writings on Psychiatry)

Check back next week for a list of WWB contributors who made the long list for the NTA for Poetry.

For the last seventeen years, the American Literary Translators Association has given out the annual National Translation Award, the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of the source text and its relation to the finished English work. For the last twelve years, Words without Borders has been presenting innovative and undiscovered voices in translation to English-language readers. So it's no surprise that we've published many of the names that have made this year's long list for the NTA, some for the first time in English. Below you can find a guide to this work from our vast archive spanning 128 countries and 106 languages.