NEA Translation Awards

I’m not exactly sure when this was announced, but the list of the recipients of the FY 2008 NEA Literature Fellowships for Translations is now available online.

The NEA seems to do a consistently great job of supporting interesting projects from worthy translators, and this year is no exception. Among this year’s winners are:

• Aditya Behl’s translation from Hindavi (medieval Hindi) of the Mirigavati by Qutban;

• Susan Bernofsky’s translation from German of Robert Walser’s The Tanners;

• Philip Boehm’s translation from German of Cristoph Hein’s Gaining Ground;

• Pam Carmell’s translation from Spanish of Jose Lezama Lima’s Oppiano Licario;

• Bill Martin for his translation from Polish of a fascinating sounding book by Karol Irzykowski;

• Paul Olchvary’s translation from Hungarian of Ferenc Barnas’s The Parasite; and

• Katherine Silver’s translation from Spanish of Horacio Castellanos Moya’s Senselessness.

Fourteen translators received awards this year in the amount of $10,000 or $20,000. And the link above not only lists all the recipients, but has descriptions of their projects as well . . .

I’ve heard from very reliable sources that the NEA doesn’t receive very many applications for this grant. Which absolutely boggles my mind. Aside from a few special prizes, there is no other grant that American translators can apply for where they can receive more than $10,000 for their work.

Seriously, the next deadline is January 7, 2008, and the application info can be found here.