On Friday, 30 September 2011, The Hellenic American Union hosted the 2011 Literary Translation Awards ceremony presented by The European Translation Centre – Literature and Human Sciences (EKEMEL (http://www NULL.ekemel NULL.gr/Home NULL.aspx?C=2)) along with the following cultural institutions in Athens: Hellenic American Union, Goethe Institute, Cervantes Institute and Italian Cultural Institute. Prizes were awarded to five translators for the best translation into Greek from English, French, German, Italian and Spanish respectively.

The winners are:

• Margarita Zachariadou, for the best translation from English into Greek of Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million.
• Yannis I. Haris, for the best translation from French into Greek of Milan Kundera’s Une rencontre.
• Alexandros Isaris, for the best translation from German into Greek of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Briefe an einen jungen Dichter.
• Vassiliki Knitou, for the best translation from Spanish into Greek of Pedro Mairal’s El año del desierto (The Year of the Desert).
• Koula Kafetzi, for the best translation from Italian into Greek of Sandro Dell’Orco’s Delfi.

Each winner will receive a cash prize and one month’s accommodation at the House of Literature in Paros or in Crete.

The sponsor of the 2011 Literary Translation Awards is RECIT (http://www NULL.re-cit NULL.eu/) – the European Network of International Translation Centres. It is noteworthy that the Network decided to support the Awards as a gesture of solidarity towards Greek translators. ‘This is the other side of Europe, of a Europe united in solidarity and cooperation, which has thus given the 2011 Literary Translation Awards a profound European dimension,’ Helene Zervas, Director of the European Translation Centre (EKEMEL), pointed out in her speech expressing her gratitude to the RECIT centres.