The University of Rochester’s Best Translated Book Award received the International Literary Translation Initiative Award, presented at the International Book Industry’s Excellence Awards ceremony. The event helped kick off the inaugural London Book Fair, held April 8-10.
Launched in 2008 by Three Percent, the University’s website for translated literature, the Best Translated Book Award (BTBA) is the only prize of its kind to honor the best original works of international fiction and poetry published in the United States over the previous year.
“This award is a testament to the great work of everyone involved, especially the judges, who have read hundreds of books and who continue to promote so many important works of literature in translation,” said Chad W. Post, director of Open Letter Books at the University of Rochester, the Three Percent website, and founder of BTBA.
According to the selection committee, “The Best Translated Book Award has succeeded in alerting a growing public to all the wonderful books that are out there in the world, waiting to enlighten us. It works against powerful market forces to champion and celebrate world literature for all.”
In 2011, the BTBA gained the support of Amazon.com’s giving program, which according to Post “helped move the award to the next level” by providing $20,000 in cash prizes for the winning authors and translators. Panels of well-respected literary translators, reviewers, and booksellers from the international publishing community select the winning works of fiction and poetry. Judges base their decision for the BTBA on both the quality of the original work and the quality of the English translation.
The finalists for this year’s award—10 poetry collections and 10 works of fiction—were announced on Tuesday, April 15. Winning titles will be announced at 1 p.m. on Monday, April 28, both on the Three Percent website and simultaneously at a special celebration ceremony at Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, France.
For additional information on this year’s best translated book award, visit Three Percent athttp://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?s=btb.
