May 2016 Translation News Roundup

May was a busy month for literature in translation, and we’ve rounded up some of the biggest news in case you missed it!

Author Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith were awarded the Man Booker International Prize for Kang’s novel The Vegetarian. The prize celebrates “the finest global fiction in translation”, and will be jointly shared between the author and translator—each will receive £25,000.

The prize may help South Korea’s efforts to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, outlined in a recent “On the Media” story.

Two Lines Press has a great interview with Deborah Smith about her love of Korean literature.

Our very own Executive Director Michael Holtmann was interviewed not once but twice by the BBC World Service after the prizewinners were announced. He praised the art of translation and also declared that multiple statues should be erected in their honor. Listen to the short clip here (start at 35:15), or a longer interview here (start at 17:30).

Han Kang has posted a reading list of books by contemporary Korean authors available now or forthcoming in English.

The Best Translated Book Award went to Yuri Herrera’s Signs of Life Preceding the End of the World (translated by Lisa Dillman), and Rilke Shake, by Angelica Freitas and translated by Hilary Kaplan. We hosted an event with Herrera in conversation with Daniel Alarcón last year.

Recent research commissioned by the Man Booker International Prize shows that UK sales of literature in translation grew 96% from 2001. They also found that “translated fiction books sell better than books originally written in English, particularly in literary fiction.”

The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Firecracker award winners were officially announced May 19—you can read about the winning books here. (Wolfgang Hilbig’s The Sleep of the Righteous made the shortlist, and you can get a copy at the Two Lines Press website)

The New Republic reviewed Marie NDiaye’s Ladivine and also called All My Friends and Self-Portrait in Green (from Two Lines Press) “perfect introductions to NDiaye.” Order the books and experience this “unique voice among other contemporary French writers”.

If you haven’t yet gotten your copy of João Gilberto Noll’s Quiet Creature on the Corner, we’re still offering the book for just $6.95.