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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 is founded by Lord Weidenfeld and funded by New College, The Queen’s College and St Anne’s College, Oxford.
The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2019

This year’s Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize shortlist includes eight books from an outstanding entry of over a hundred titles in translations from 22 different languages.

Once again we had impressive submissions from both larger and smaller publishing houses. The shortlist contains translations from eight languages.

The winner will be announced at the prizegiving and dinner at St Anne’s College, Oxford on Saturday 15 June 2019. This is the crowning event of Oxford Translation Day, which boasts a varied programme of talks, workshops, and readings. Details are available at: http://www.occt.ox.ac.uk/oxford-translation-day-2019.

This year’s judges of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize are Charlotte Ryland, Emma Claussen, James Partridge and Simon Park (Chair).

The 2019 shortlist:

Jón Kalman Stefánsson, About the Size of the Universe, translated from the Icelandic by Philip Roughton (MacLehose)

Gaito Gazdanov, The Beggar and Other Stories, translated from the Russian by Bryan Karetnyk (Pushkin Press)

Dalia Grinkevičiūtė, Shadows on the Tundra, translated from the Lithuanian by Delija Valiukenas (Peirene)

Christine Marendon, Heroines from Abroad, translated from the German by Ken Cockburn (Carcanet)

Mario Benedetti, Springtime in a Broken Mirror, translated from the Spanish by Nick Caistor (Penguin)

Ivo Andrić, Omer Pasha Latas, translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth (New York Review of Books)

Gine Cornelia Pedersen, Zero, translated from the Norwegian by Rosie Hedger (Nordisk Books)

Mbarek Ould Beyrouk, The Desert and the Drum, translated from the French by Rachel McGill (Dedalus)

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)

 

‘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)
Judges' citations (2018)Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize - How to enter About the Oxford-Weidenfeld PrizeOxford Translation Day 2019 programme