2009 Awards

 

ROSSICA TRANSLATION PRIZE 

 

 

AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN RUSSIAN TO ENGLISH LITERARY TRANSLATION

 

 

Publishers are invited to enter books for the 2009 Rossica Translation Prize.

 

The Rossica Translation Prize is awarded for excellence in literary translation from Russian into English. To qualify for the 2009 Rossica Prize, the original work must be written in Russian by any author, present or past and the translation published in 2007 and 2008. The prize is open to works published in any country. The award, totalling £5,000, is to be split between translator and publisher.

 

The award ceremony will take place in London on 24 May 2009, the Day of Sts Kyrill and Methodios, the creators of the Slavic alphabet.

 

The Rossica Prize Committee includes distinguished literary figures - Literary Editor of The Independent and founder of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Boyd Tonkin, the publisher Christopher MacLehose, Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation Amanda Hopkinson and Director of Literature at British Council Susanna Nicklin.

The establishment of this unique prize aims to promote the best of Russian literary culture in the English-speaking world, serving and encouraging the translation of a broad range of authors, genres and periods. It recognizes the vital role of translation in culture and the contribution Russian literature continues to make towards enriching the intellectual life of the English-speaking world. The Rossica Translation Prize is established by Academia Rossica jointly with the Boris Yeltsin Foundation.

The timeframe for the 2009 Rossica Prize is as follows:

Deadline for submissions - 31 December 2008
Announcement of the shortlist - 22 April 2009, at the London Book Fair
Prize award - 24 May 2009

 

Please send 4 copies of the published English translation and 4 copies of the Russian original to:

 

Academia Rossica
76 Brewer Street, 4th Floor
Piccadilly Circus
London
W1F 9TX

 

We look forward to receiving your books!

 

Translating Russia – High Art, or Painting by Numbers?

'Translation is like a woman.
If beautiful she is unfaithful.
If faithful she is not beautiful.'
Kornei Chukovsky

The American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) famously said that 'Poetry is what is lost in translation'. Yet we continue to translate, and to read literature in translation, because a great deal more is lost if it is not translated at all. Translators are sometimes likened to impersonators or ventriloquists, and Boris Pasternak thought the art of translation to be like that of copying paintings. Pushkin conveyed their essential role as cultural mediators when he likened translators to horses changed at the post houses of civilisation.

The Rossica Translation Prize was established by Academia Rossica in 2004 to recognise and reward translators whose work acts as a bridge between Russian literature and its Anglophone audience. This is the only prize awarded exclusively for literary translation from Russian into English anywhere in the world, and it is open to works published in any country.

Thus with this unique prize we aim to promote the best of Russian literary culture in the English-speaking world and hope to further encourage the translation of a broad range of authors across various genres and periods. It recognises the vital role of translation in culture and the contribution Russian literature continues to make towards enriching the intellectual life of the English-speaking world.