Ten-thousand-dollar Prizes Awarded for French Translations

The French-American Foundation and the Florence Gould Foundation announced today the winners of the twenty-second-annual translation prizes for fiction and nonfiction. The awards of ten thousand dollars each were given for English translations of French prose published last year. Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays won in fiction for their translation of Small Lives (Archipelago Books) by Pierre Michon. Matthew Cobb and Malcolm DeBevoise won in nonfiction for Life Explained (Yale University Press/Odile Jacob) by Michel Morange. The winners will be honored tonight at a ceremony at the Century Association in New York City.

“These translation awards are an important opportunity to bring publishing professionals, translators and writers together to draw public attention to outstanding translations of literary works—which can often go unnoticed,” said French-American Foundation program director Emma Archer in a press release. “Translation is key to perpetuating an ongoing conversation between cultures and to promote the circulation of literary works at a time where the dominant language is English."

Jurors for this year's competition were Linda Asher, Tom Bishop, Antoine Compagnon, Linda Coverdale, Richard Howard, and Lily Tuck.