Chad Post of Open Letter Books just announced the ten fiction and ten poetry finalists for the 2008 Best Translated Book of the Year award.

The goal of the award is to help bring attention to great works of literature published in the United States over the past year. The award will culminate with the announcement of the winner and runners-up in both the fiction and poetry categories at Melville House Books on February 19th.

This event will be hosted by author, critic, translator, and all around supporter of international literature, Francisco Goldman, and, in the words of Chad Post, one of the judges and curator of Three Percent, íwill be an opportunity to honor and celebrate the translators, editors, publishers, and other literary supporters who help make literature from other cultures available to American readers.ë

There are lots of favorites on the list, like Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver, Bolaño’s 2666, translated by Natasha Wimmer, and Nazi Literature in the Americas, translated by Chris Andrews, and Adam Zagajewski’s Eternal Enemies, by Clare Cavanagh, as well as Elias Khoury’s Yalo, translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux (links above are to the author’s work here at Words Without Borders).

Skip on over to the “Three Percent” blog for the rest of the lists: Fiction | Poetry