Posted July 7th, 2014 by Emma Cleave & filed under Translation.
English PEN is proud to support award-winning Iraqi author Hassan Blasim’s anthology of short stories Iraq + 100. The collection asks ten contemporary Iraqi writers to reflect on what their home city might look like in the year 2103, 100 years after the British/US invasion of the country. The writers will consider the legacy of the war in Iraq, and how it has affected its identity, politics, religion, language and culture.
Top international authors Philippe Claudel and Ismail Kadare also feature among the 21 publications that are receiving awards from English PEN, alongside emerging authors and poets from around the world.
Publishers Bloomsbury, Comma Press, Granta Books, Hamish Hamilton, Istros Books, MacLehose Press, Make Do Publishing and Silk Road Media have all received funding to promote new works in translation and a further 14 grants have been awarded to enable translation from an array of languages from Albanian and Greek to Nynorsk, a language spoken in provincial Norway.
English PEN is pleased to support several books from languages that have not appeared in its lists before, and is particularly thrilled to be supporting the latest novel by Wiliam Roberts, which will be the Writers in Translation programme’s first award-winning title translated from the Welsh.
Samantha Schnee, chair of Writers in Translation, said: ‘This current list of PEN-supported titles, which ranges from fiction to poetry to nonfiction, will greatly enrich the landscape of publishing in the UK for years to come, increasing cultural literacy. In the hands of some of the foremost translators working today, titles from Arabic and Chinese, from Turkmen to Nynorsk, will open windows onto other cultures for readers of English.’
Winner of a 2014 English PEN award for promotion via the PEN Promotes programme:
• The Book of Sins by Chen Xiwo, translated from the Chinese by Nicky Harman. Make Do Publishing.
• False Apocalypse by Fatos Lubonja, translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson. Istros Books.
• The Book of Gaza – ed. Abu Atef Saif, featuring various authors translated from the Arabic. Comma Press.
• The Tale of Aypi by Ak Welsapar, translated from the Turkmen by W.M. Coulson. Silk Road Media.
• Arab Jazz by Karim Miské, translated from the French by Sam Gordon. MacLehose Press.
• End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky. Granta.
• Harraga by Boualem Sansal, translated from the French by Frank Wynne. Bloomsbury.
• Drone Theory by Grégoire Chamayou, translated from French by Janet Lloyd. Hamish Hamilton.
Winner of a 2014 English PEN grant for translation via our PEN Translates programme;
• See You Tomorrow by Tore Renberg, translated from the Norwegian by Sean Kinsella. Arcadia.
• Archipelago by Antonella Anedda, translated from the Italian and Logudorese by Jamie McKendrick. Bloodaxe Books.
• Parfums by Philippe Claudel, translated from the French by Euan Cameron. MacLehose Press.
• The Book of Gaza edited by Abu Atef Said, translated from the Arabic by various translators. Comma Press.
• Epitaphios by Yiannis Ritsos, translated from the Greek by Rick M. Newton. Smoke Stack Books.
• Iraq + 100 edited by Hassan Blasim, translated from the Arabic by various translators. Comma Press.
• A Perfect Crime by A Yi, translated from the Chinese by Anna Holmwood. Oneworld Publications.
• Drone Theory, Grégoire Chamayou, translated from the French by Janet Lloyd. Hamish Hamilton.
• E Penguara (English title TBC) by Ismail Kadare, translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson. Harvill Secker.
• The Art of Flying by Antonio Altaribba, translated from the Spanish by Adrian West. Jonathan Cape.
• A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn. Harvill Secker.
• Encircling by Carl Frode Tiller, translated from Nynorsk by Barbara J Haveland. Sort of Books.
• The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette. Melville House UK.
• Paris by William Owen Roberts translated from the Welsh by Elisabeth Roberts. Parthian Books.