Translator’s Prize nominated by Ismail Kadare
Awarded as part of the Man Booker International prize.
David Bellos is today, 22 June, announced as the sole winner of the Translator’s Prize of £15,000 awarded as part of the Man Booker International Prize.
In accordance with the rules of the Man Booker International Prize, a translator (or translators) is chosen by the winner if their work is published in English translation.
Bellos, a Professor of French and Comparative Literature, has translated five of Kadaré’s novels including, The File on H, Spring Flowers, Spring Frost and The Pyramid. He is currently working on Agamemnon’s Daughter and has finished work on The Successor, both new titles to be published by Canongate in the UK.
David Bellos comments:
“I have to thank first of all Ismail Kadaré himself, for having named me among his many translators as the recipient of this generous award. Translation into English matters immensely for the authors we translate. I’m very happy indeed that the pivotal role played by translation into English in the World Republic of Letters has been recognized at long last in this prestigious and public way.”
Professor John Carey, Chair of Judges comments on the decision to create a prize for translation:
“During the first stages of judging for the Man Booker International Prize we, the judges, became increasingly aware of the huge role translators play in making first rate fiction accessible to a global audience. I am delighted that this separate award has been announced to recognise their unique part in the readers’ enjoyment of the work.”
Harvey McGrath, Chairman, Man Group plc comments:
“With the majority of the authors shortlisted for the first Man Booker International Prize being in translation, we are very pleased to recognise the role of the translator – the unsung hero of international literature – with this special award.”
The Man Booker International is awarded every two years to a writer of international stature. The translation prize seeks to reinforce the global values of the international prize and, in doing so, to create a worldwide platform on which to discuss the role of literature across cultures.
The Award Ceremony for the Man Booker International Prize and the Translator’s Prize will take place on the 27th June in Edinburgh.
Notes to Editors
DAVID BELLOS (D. Phil, Oxon is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Princeton. He has taught at the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, Southampton, and Manchester (England), where he served as head of the department (1985-1988) and as chair of the Graduate Studies Committee (1992-1996). He was chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Princeton from 1999 to 2002. He has published three books in the field of Balzac studies (Balzac Criticism in France, 1850-1900, Oxford, 1976; a critical study of La Cousine Bette, London, 1981; and an introduction to Old Goriot, Cambridge, 1987) as well as many articles on the history of fiction and the book market in 19th-century France.
Bellos has also worked closely on the modern French writer Georges Perec, first as his principal English translator (Life, A User’s Manual, 1987, which won the French-American Foundation’s translation prize in 1988; W or the Memory of Childhood, 1988; Things, 1990; 53 Days, 1992) and then as the author of the first literary biography (Georges Perec. A Life in Words, Boston, 1993) which in French translation, was awarded the Prix Goncourt de la Biographie (1994). His biographical study of the French filmmaker Jacques Tati appeared in Fall 1999; a French version was published by Seuil in April 2002. He is currently working on a life of the novelist and diplomat Romain Gary. David Bellos holds the rank of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
