PrintWitkowski's Lovetown longlisted to the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011
The longlist for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011 has been announced.
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is awarded annually to the best work of contemporary fiction in translation. The Prize celebrates an exceptional work of fiction by a living author which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom in the last year. Uniquely, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize acknowledges both the writer and the translator equally, recognising the importance of the translator in their ability to bridge the gap between languages and cultures.
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Contenders longlisted for the 2011 prize:
Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Susan Bernofsky from the German (Portobello Books)
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras, translated by Frank Wynne from the Spanish (Atlantic Books)
To the End of the Land by David Grossman, translated by Jessica Cohen from Hebrew (Jonathan Cape)
Fame by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Carol Brown Janeway from the German (Quercus)
Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi, translated by Adriana Hunter from the French (Peirene Press)
The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely from the Turkish (Faber and Faber)
I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson, translated by Charlotte Barslund with Per Petterson from the Norwegian (Harvill Secker)
Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo, translated by Edith Grossman from the Spanish (Atlantic Books)
Gargling with Tar by Jachym Topol, translated by David Short from the Czech (Portobello Books)
The Sickness by Alberto Berrera Tyszka, translated by Margaret Jull Costa from the Spanish (Maclehose Press)
The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, translated by Anne McLean from the Spanish (Bloomsbury)
The Journey of Anders Sparrman by Per Wastberg, translated by Tom Geddes from the Swedish (Granta)
Lovetown by Michal Witkowski, translated by W Martin from the Polish (Portobello Books)
Villain by Shuichi Yoshida, translated by Philip Gabriel from the Japanese (Harvill Secker)
Dark Matter by Juli Zeh, translated by Christine Lo from the German (Harvill Secker)
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This year’s longlist reflects the international scope of the prize with writers working in Swedish, Japanese, Hebrew, Czech, Polish and Norwegian. Independent publishers feature heavily with Portobello Books taking three places on this year’s list, followed by Atlantic Books with two and Granta and Peirene Press who both have a title on the longlist.
The list features a number of previous Independent Foreign Fiction Prize winners including the Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, who won the first-ever Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 1990 alongside translator Victoria Holbrook, for The White Castle; Per Petterson who won the Prize in 2006 for Out Stealing Horses, and former winning translators Anne McLean (2009, 2004) and Frank Wynne (2005).
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize ran previously between 1990 and 1995 and the Prize was revived with the support of Arts Council England in 2001. The £10,000 prize money and associated costs are funded by Arts Council England. The Prize is also supported by the Independent and Champagne Taittinger.
The judges for this year’s prize are: Harriett Gilbert, writer, academic and broadcaster; Author, M.J. Hyland; Catriona Kelly, writer and Professor of Russian at the University of Oxford; Novelist and reviewer, Neel Mukherjee; Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor of the Independent.
Previous winners of the Prize include Milan Kundera in 1991 for Immortality translated by Peter Kussi; W.G. Sebald and translator Anthea Bell in 2002 for Austerlitz, and Paul Verhaegan, who also translated his own work, for Omega Minor in 2008. The 2010 winner was Brodeck’s Report by French writer Philippe Claudel, translated from the French by American John Cullen.
Previous Polish novels shortlisted to the Prize include Mercedes Benz (2006) and Castorp (2008) by Paweł Huelle, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, published by Serpent's Tail.
A shortlist of six books will be announced on Monday 11th April 2011 at the London Book Fair and the overall winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011 will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London on Thursday 26th May 2010 at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The winning author and translator will be awarded £5,000 each and a limited edition magnum of Champagne Taittinger.