Washington,
DC -- Literary translations enter our canon as new works of art, bringing
voices and stories from diverse cultures to a new audience. For the art of
literary translation is not simply the act of converting an author's words from
one language into another; rather, it requires difficult choices and creative
thinking in order to fully convey images and meaning. Today, the National
Endowment for the Arts announced its latest efforts to support literary
translation through $250,000 in recommended grants to 16 translators to support
the translation of works into English from 13 languages and 15 countries.
Joan
Shigekawa, NEA senior deputy chairman, said, "The NEA is proud to support
translation, whether it's through direct fellowships such as these or through
our support of publishers which make these translated works available.
Translation is an important and difficult task and these 16 individuals have
shown the passion and talent needed to bring these international works to a new
audience of readers."
Since 1981,
the NEA has awarded 355 translation fellowships for works in 62 languages from
78 countries. With the addition of these 16 projects, three first-time
languages will be added to the list: Bulgarian, Haitian Creole, and Macedonian.
The recommended projects range from poetry and novels to short stories, plays,
and creative nonfiction.
Fiscal Year
2014 NEA Literature Translation Fellows
(More information about these projects and their translators can be found here or through the NEA's online grant search system.)
(More information about these projects and their translators can be found here or through the NEA's online grant search system.)
Mohammed A.
Albakry (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) is recommended for a grant of $25,000 to support
the translation from Arabic of Tahrir Plays and Performance Texts from the
Egyptian Revolution, an anthology of six contemporary Egyptian plays written by
established and emerging playwrights. This project is in collaboration with
Rebekah Maggor.
Daniel
Borzutzky (Chicago, Illinois) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support
the translation from Spanish of a collection of poetry by Chilean author Raul
Zurita.
Nancy Naomi
Carlson (Silver Spring, Maryland) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support
the translation from French of a poetry collection by African writer
Abdourahman Waberi.
David
Dollenmayer (Hopkinton, Massachusetts) is recommended for a grant of
$12,500 to support the translation from German of the novel A Garden
in the North by Michael Kleeberg.
Erdağ
Göknar (Durham, North Carolina) is recommended for a grant of $25,000 to
support the translation from Ottoman Turkish of the epic poemInsurgency by
Nazim Hikmet.
Jen Hofer (Los
Angeles, California) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support the
translation from Spanish of To Be in Pain: Texts from a Wounded Country by
Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza.
Christina E.
Kramer (Toronto, Ontario) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support
the translation from Macedonian of the novel The Path of the Eels by
Albanian writer Luan Starova.
Andrea
Lingenfelter (Berkeley, California) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to
support the translation from Chinese of The Kite Family, a collection
of fiction by contemporary Hong Kong writer Hon Lai Chu.
Denise
Newman (San Francisco, California) is recommended for a grant of $12,500
to support the translation from Danish of a collection of short stories, Baboon,
by Danish author Naja Marie Aidt.
George
O'Connell (Omaha, Nebraska) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support
the translation from Mandarin of From Here to Here: New and Selected Poems by
Chinese writer Hu Lan Lan. This project is in collaboration with Diana Shi.
Mariana F.
Past (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to
support the translation from Haitian Creole of Controversial Issues in
Haitian History, a work of creative nonfiction by Michel-Rolph Trouillot. This
project is in collaboration with Benjamin Hebblethwaite.
Amanda
Powell (Eugene, Oregon) is recommended for a grant of $12,500to support
the translation from Spanish of the novel El gato de si mismo by
Costa Rican writer Uriel Quesada.
Daisy
Rockwell (North Bennington, Vermont) is recommended for a grant of $25,000
to support the translation from Hindi of the novel Falling Walls by
Indian author Upendranath Ashk.
Angela Rodel (Sofia,
Bulgaria) is recommended for a grant of $25,000 tosupport the translation from
Bulgarian of the novel The Physics of Sorrow by writer Georgi
Gospondinov.
Rimas Uzgiris (Brooklyn,
New York) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support the translation from
Lithuanian of selected poems by Lithuanian writer Judita Vaiciunaite.
Hester Velmans (Sheffield,
Massachusetts) is recommended for a grant of $12,500 to support the translation
from Dutch of the novel Slow Light by Dutch writer Herman Franke.
The NEA
received 82 eligible applications for the Fiscal Year 2014 NEA Literature
Translation Fellowships. As with all NEA grants, these applications were
reviewed by a panel of experts. Each eligible application, however, was also
examined by a working literary translator who reported to the panel on how well
the original text was rendered into English, how well it reads in English, how
important the original author and work are in his or her own country, and how
well-represented the author is in the United States.
The
National Endowment for the Arts' support of literary translation also extends
to direct grants to nonprofit organizations to support projects that promote
and develop audiences for international literature. For instance, in fiscal
year 2013, Archipelago Books received an Art Works grant to support the
publication and promotion of international works of fiction and poetry in
English translation and the University of Rochester received an Art Works grant
that included support for the continuation of the website Three Percent, which
focuses on literary translation. For more information about these and
other grants in support of translation projects, visit the NEA's online grant search.
The National
Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an
independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more
than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for
the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through
partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies,
and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit
the NEA at arts.gov.
