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Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize
The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and funded by New College, The Queen’s College and St Anne’s College, Oxford.
The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2021

The Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize is for book-length literary translations into English from any living European language. It aims to honour the craft of translation, and to recognise its cultural importance. It was founded by Lord Weidenfeld and is supported by New College, The Queen's College, and St Anne's College, Oxford. The closing date for this year's entries was 31 January.

Recent winners include: David Hackston for Pajtim Statovci’s Crossing (Pushkin); Celia Hawkesworth for Ivo Andrić’s Omer Pasha Latas (New York Review Books); Lisa Dillman for Andrés Barba’s Such Small Hands (Portobello); Frank Perry for Lina Wolff's Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs (And Other Stories); Philip Roughton for Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s The Heart of Man (MacLehose); Paul Vincent and John Irons for 100 Dutch-Language Poems (Holland Park); Susan Bernofsky for Jenny Erpenbeck's The End of Days (Portobello); Susan Wicks for Valérie Rouzeau’s Talking Vrouz (Arc); Philip Boehm for Herta Müller’s The Hunger Angel (Portobello); Judith Landry for Diego Marani’s New Finnish Grammar (Dedalus).

This year’s judges are Patrick McGuinness, Laura Seymour, Holly Langstaff, and Karolina Watroba (Chair).

The shortlist will be announced in May 2021. The prize of £2000 will be awarded at Oxford Translation Day in June 2021. Ordinarily Oxford Translation Day takes place at St Anne’s College. However, owing to COVID-19 restrictions, it may take place virtually. Oxford Translation Day will feature talks, seminars and workshops, and will give shortlisted translators the opportunity to read from and discuss their work.

Winner 2020

The winner of the 2020 Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize was David Hackston for his translation of Pajtim Statovci’s Crossing (Pushkin Press). This was announced on 30 September 2020 – International Translation Day – during an online ceremony hosted by English PEN. Read the judges’ citations about the individual translations here.

To accompany the award of the Prize, St Anne’s and Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) have uploaded a number of videos in which the shortlisted translators discuss or read from their respective translations. 

Enquiries

Enquiries about the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize should be directed to the Prize administrator, Dr Eleni Philippou, at Comparative.Criticism@st-annes.ox.ac.uk.

Previous winners

1999: Jonathan Galassi for his translation of Eugenio Montale's Collected Poems (Carcanet)
2000: Margaret Jull Costa for her translation of José Saramago's All the Names (Harvill)
2001: Edwin Morgan for his translation of Phèdre by Jean Racine (Carcanet) into Scots
2002: Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen for Miklós Bánffy's They Were Divided (Arcadia)
2003: Ciaran Carson for his translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno (Granta)
2004: Michael Hofmann for his translation of Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel (Penguin)
2005: Denis Jackson for his translation of Theodor Storm's Paul the Puppeteer (Angel Books)
2006: Len Rix for his translation of Magda Szabó's The Door (Harvill Secker)
2007: Michael Hofmann for his translation of Durs Grünbein's Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems (Faber)
2008: Margaret Jull Costa for her translation of Eça de Queiroz's The Maias (Dedalus)
2009: Anthea Bell for her translation of Saša Stanišić's How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone
2010: Jamie McKendrick for his translation of Valerio Magrelli's The Embrace: Selected Poems (Faber and Faber)
2011: Margaret Jull Costa for her translation of José Saramago's The Elephant's Journey (Harvill Secker)
2012: Judith Landry for her translation of Diego Marani's New Finnish Grammar
2013: Philip Boehm for his translation of Herta Müller's The Hunger Angel (Portobello)
2014: Susan Wicks for her translation of Valérie Rouzeau's Talking Vrouz
2015: Susan Bernofsky for her translation of Jenny Erpenbeck's The End of Days
2016: Joint Winners: Paul Vincent and John Irons for their translation of 100 Dutch-Language Poems (Holland Park Press) & Philip Roughton for his translation of Jón Kalman Stefánsson's The Heart of Man (MacLehose Press)
2017: Frank Perry for his translation of Lina Wolff's Bret Easton Ellis and the Other Dogs (And Other Stories)
2018: Lisa Dillman for her translation of Such Small Hands by Andrés Barba (Portobello Books)
2019: Celia Hawkesworth for her translation of Ivo Andrić, Omer Pasha Latas (New York Review Books)

‘Common European thought is the fruit of the immense toil of translators. Without translators, Europe would not exist; translators are more important than members of the European Parliament.’ (Milan Kundera)

‘Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.’ (Anthony Burgess)
Oxford Translation Day About the Oxford-Weidenfeld PrizeJudges' citations