This year’s Translation Prize of the Dutch Foundation for Literature will be awarded to Martin de Haan, literary translator from French to Dutch. The Prize, in recognition of his entire body of work as a translator will be awarded on Friday 13 December in Amsterdam. The prize includes a cash sum of 10,000 Euros. →
Dutch Vondel Translation Prize for David Colmer
The Vondel Translation Prize 2013 has been awarded to David Colmer for The Misfortunates, his translation into English of De helaasheid der dingen by Flemish author Dimitri Verhulst. The jury consisted of British critic Paul Binding (Times Literary Supplement) and translators Sam Garrett and Paul Vincent.
The Misfortunates was published in 2012 by Portobello Books of London. →
Transnational master programme in literary translation kicks off
After twenty years students in the Netherlands and Flanders can again follow an academic course in literary translation. The new master’s programme, launched last September, is an international joint programme of Utrecht University (the Netherlands) and the University of Leuven (Belgium). It is the first two-year programme at master’s level in Europe teaching literary translation combined with research into the subject. →
Schwob sets up English website on the world’s best unknown books
Schwob, an initiative to publicize largely untranslated modern classics, cult books and must-reads from all over the world, recently launched its English website: en.schwob-books.eu (http://en NULL.schwob-books NULL.eu/). The site is part of a larger project to find and promote insider tips about modern European literature.
An international network of translators, publishing houses, festivals and literature foundations contribute by suggesting titles, as well as providing sample translations, background articles, and information on how to acquire rights. →
Dutch Brockway Prize goes to poetry translator Judith Wilkinson
This year’s biennial Brockway Prize for translators of poetry from Dutch has gone to Judith Wilkinson. Awarded by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the prize of €5000 will be presented on 14 June 2013, during the 44th Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam.
The British poet and translator Judith Wilkinson came to prominence in England thanks mainly to her translations of the Flemish poet MiriamVan hee and the Dutch poet Toon Tellegen. →
Schwob.nl becomes an international network with EU support
The European Union announced today that a subsidy of €200,000, the maximum, has been granted to the Schwob.nl (http://www NULL.schwob NULL.nl) project to enable it to expand into an international network, a European portal for the best unknown books of world literature.
The Dutch Foundation for Literature launched Schwob.nl in 2011 as a website and organization that facilitates the promotion of literature from all parts of Europe that has not yet appeared in translation.
Dutch Translation Prizes go to David Colmer, Mark Leenhouts and Mark Wildschut
The Dutch Foundation for Literature’s 2012 Translation Prizes have been awarded to David Colmer (translator Dutch-English), Mark Leenhouts (translator Chinese-Dutch and journalist) and Mark Wildschut (translator of German philosophical work). The prizes, awarded for a translator’s oeuvre as a whole, will be presented on Friday 14 December in Amsterdam. Each of the winners receives a sum of 10,000 euro. →
Martinus Nijhoff Prize awarded to Frans Denissen
The Dutch Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds is awarding the 2012 Martinus Nijhoff Prize to translator and author Frans Denissen. He receives the 35,000 Euro prize for his translations of Italian literature into Dutch. Denissen published his first literary translation from Italian in 1982; 2011 saw the publication of his translation of Carlo Emilio Gadda’s De leerschool van het lijden (La cognizione del dolore)
In the intervening three decades, Denissen translated amongst other things Boccaccio’s Decameron, prose from respected 20th-century authors such as Leonardo Sciascia, Curzio Malaparte and Umberto Eco and the poetry of Cesare Pavese. →
Vondel Translation Prize goes to Dutch-English translator Paul Vincent
The jury for the Vondel Translation Prize 2011 has awarded the prize to Paul Vincent for My Little War, his English translation of Louis Paul Boon’s Mijn kleine oorlog. The jury consisted of critic Paul Binding (Times Literary Supplement) and translators Ina Rilke and Sam Garrett. The runner-up is David Colmer for The Portrait, his translation of Specht en zoon by Willem Jan Otten. →
Dutch Literature Foundation translation prizes for Claudia Di Palermo, Vincent Hunink and Bartho Kriek
The Dutch Foundation for Literature’s Prizes 2011 for the Translator as Cultural Intermediary have been awarded to Vincent Hunink (Latin-Dutch), Bartho Kriek (English-Dutch) and Claudia Di Palermo (Dutch-Italian). These prizes are intended to emphasize their outstanding efforts on behalf of literature as well as the quality of their oeuvre as translators. →
Dutch Literary Translation Days will focus on translation and Zeitgeist
On Friday 9 and Saturday 10 December 2011 the thirteenth edition of the Dutch Literary Translation Days will take place in Amsterdam. On the first day a symposium will be organized on the theme of ‘Translation and Zeitgeist: the shelf life of the translator’. Do translators have a sell-by date? Should they stop translating certain kinds of texts as they get older? →
‘Translators’ bliss’: Dutch translators discuss the satisfaction a great translation can offer
Literary translators of five important European novels will tour Dutch bookstores in September and October. The tour is named ‘Translators’ bliss’. The translators will elaborate on their varied and often invisible work, and the challenging and beautiful aspects of their profession.
During the tour, translators Jeanne Holierhoek, Edgar de Bruin, Harm Damsma and Niek Miedema, Annelies van Hees and Liesbeth van Nes will specifically speak about their translation of Drie sterke vrouwen by Marie NDiaye, De werkplaats van de duivel by Jáchym Topol, De niet verhoorde gebeden van Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell, Dat weet je niet by Jens Christian Grøndahl and HhhH by Laurent Binet. →
Translation events during Poetry International Festival
De 42nd annual Poetry International Festival (http://www NULL.poetryinternationalweb NULL.net/), ‘a festive stage for world poetry’, will take place in Rotterdam from 14 until 19 June. ‘Without translators our festival would simply be impossible,’ say the organizers of the festival, at which poets from a number of countries will read from their work. →
Brockway Prize for translation of Dutch poetry to Spanish translator Francisco Carrasquer Launed
The Brockway Prize, a two-yearly prize for translators of Dutch poetry, is being awarded to Spanish translator Francisco Carrasquer Launed. The prize (5.000 euro) is an initiative of the Nederlands Letterenfonds (Dutch Foundation for Literature), and funded by a legacy of the late James Brockway, himself a poet and translator of Dutch poetry. →
New Dutch website introduces untranslated world literature
The Dutch Foundation for Literature has just launched a new website. Schwob.nl (http://www NULL.schwob NULL.nl) will focus on important world literature that hasn’t yet been translated into Dutch. In this way, Schwob.nl hopes to draw attention and enthusiasm from readers and editors for forgotten or undiscovered books from all corners of the globe. →
This year’s Dutch translation night discusses the translation of dialogue
On Monday 7 March the translators’ division of the Dutch Authors’ Guild (VvL), in cooperation with the Foundation for Literary Activities Amsterdam (SLAA), will host its annual discussion night about translation. This year’s theme will be the translation of dialogue in fiction and drama. Dramatist and director Frances Sanders will give a presentation about dialogue in stage translations, and translators Bartho Kriek and Annelies Jorna will explain how they have dealt with specific dialects in their translation practice. →
Dutch translation prizes awarded to Hans Driessen, Diego Puls, Mariolein Sabarte Belacortu, Piet Schrijvers, and Andreas Ecke
On 10 December in Utrecht, three translators were awarded the 2010 Prize of the Dutch Literary Foundation, for the quality of their literary work and their merit as ‘cultural mediators’: Hans Driessen (b. 1953), translator of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Sloterdijk into Dutch, Diego Puls (1956), promotor of Dutch literature in the Spanish-speaking countries, and Mariolein Sabarte Belacortu (1944), translator of Cortázar, Fuentes, García Márquez and Vargas Llosa and the poetry of Juarroz into Dutch. →
Dutch literary translation days
The twelfth edition of the Dutch literary translation days will take place in Utrecht on 10 and 11 December 2010. This year’s special topic is the translation of poetry. For more information, please refer to the website of the Amsterdam Translators’ House ( http://www NULL.nlpvf NULL.nl/vertalershuis/ ) (in Dutch). →