This isn’t on the yet, but it was shared on the listserv, so I’m deciding that it’s public knowledge.

I’ll say more about the book in a minute, but first, I encourage you to click on that link above and see the competition that Kaija was up against. In terms of translators, Ellen Elias-Bursac, Marian Schwartz, Sean Cotter, Bill Johnston, Ross Ufberg, Robert and Elizabeth Chandler, Eugene Ostashevsky, and many more were finalists. Basically the cream of the crop when it comes to Eastern European and Slavic translators!

And the other authors! Books by Dostoevsky, Marek Hlasko, Vasily Grossman, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Tolstoy, are all on the list.

To be honest, I have no idea how this award is judged—based on the translation alone, or a combination of book and translation like the BTBAs. Either way, it’s amazing that Kaija and Inga won!

In terms of here’s our jacket copy:

Told more or less in reverse chronological order, High Tideis the story of Ieva, her dead lover, her imprisoned husband, and the way their youthful decisions dramatically impacted the rest of their lives. Taking place over three decades, High Tide functions as a sort of psychological mystery, with the full scope of Ieva’s personal situation—and the relationship between the three main characters—only becoming clear at the end of the novel.

One of Latvia’s most notable young writers, Ābele is a fresh voice in European fiction—her prose is direct, evocative, and exceptionally beautiful. The combination of strikingly lush descriptive writing with the precision with which she depicts the minds of her characters elevates this novel from a simple story of a love triangle into a fascinating, philosophical, haunting book. 

It’s also worth noting that this was Kaija’s MA thesis here at the URochester, which makes this all that more special, I think.

Everyone should send Kaija a congratulatory email, and purchase a If you buy it through out website, use the code “BookSeason” at check out and you’ll receive 40% off!

This is turning into a great week for Open Letter, our books, and our staff!

Gulf Coast is now accepting entries for the inaugural Gulf Coast Translation Prize. In 2014, the contest is open to poetry in translation. The winner receives $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two honorable mentions will also appear in issue 27.2, due out in April 2015. All entries will be considered for paid publication on our website as Online Exclusives. This year’s contest will be judged by Jen Hofer. A Los Angeles-based poet, translator, social justice interpreter, teacher, and urban cyclist. Jen Hofer is co-founder with John Pluecker of the language justice and literary activism collaborative Antena.

Guidelines

Poetry: Send up to 5 pages of poetry translated into English. Preference will be given to contemporary work published within the last fifty years. As part of your submission, include the text in its original language, provide a brief synopsis (no more than 200 words) of the author you are translating, and indicate whether you have, and can grant us, permission to publish the original work and the translation. If you have rights to reprint the original text in the U.S., please let us know that as well.

All the details can be found

One of the first activities of the newly-established , this Prize for Translation will be an annual award of $5,000 given to a young translator. This year’s prize is for the best proposal for a translation from German into English of a work of fiction by a living writer, but in future years the focus will rotate among major European and Asian languages.

What’s really unique about this award is that it will be given to “a university undergraduate or graduate student under the age of 30.” It’s great that such a sizable award will be given out to young translators, and hopefully this will encourage more students to study and become involved in literary translation.

The deadline for applying is January 30, 2008, and for anyone interested in applying, a pdf of the application can be found .

And just to clarify, the application consists of submitting a proposal and a five page sample. The winner will be announced in March, and it’s expected that he/she will be able to finish the translation by October 2008.

Farouk Mustafa the Saif Ghobash Banipal translation prize for his English version of the Egyptian author Khairy Shalaby’s novel The Lodging House. The £2,000 award goes annually to the best English translation of an “imaginative and creative” work in Arabic.