September 2020 translation news roundup

The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) unveiled the shortlists for the 2020 National Translation Award in Poetry and Prose(opens in a new tab), which include Igiaba Scego’s Beyond Babylon (translated by Aaron Robertson). The book was also shortlisted for ALTA’s Italian Prose in Translation Award(opens in a new tab).

The 2020 National Book Award(opens in a new tab) for Translated Literature longlist was announced earlier this month. The awards will be announced in November.

And the German Book Prize(opens in a new tab) named 6 finalists for this year’s award.

Women authors dominate this year’s JCB Prize for Literature longlist(opens in a new tab).

And 3 of the 10 books longlisted for the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award(opens in a new tab) are works in translation.

This year’s Booker Prize shortlist(opens in a new tab) is the most diverse ever.

ALTA’s 43rd annual conference(opens in a new tab) will be virtual this year, with events happening Sept. 30-Oct. 18.

This year’s Brooklyn Book Festival(opens in a new tab) will also be virtual and runs through October 5.

World Literature Today’s Neustadt Literary Festival 2020(opens in a new tab) will take place online.

We hosted a virtual conversation with bestselling author and Marie NDiaye fan Imani Perry and translator Jordan Stump(opens in a new tab) about NDiaye’s That Time of Year, published on September 8.

The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) put together a reading list for National Translation Month(opens in a new tab).

Poets & Writers(opens in a new tab) interviewed Marie NDiaye and Jordan Stump about That Time of Year.

That Time of Year was reviewed in The New York Times(opens in a new tab): “For all its elements of psychological horror, there is something hauntingly real to NDiaye’s world, where ‘pale, serene, detached, smiling faces hid an inconsolable sorrow.’”

Buzzfeed featured That Time of Year on its list of 38 Great Books to Read This Fall(opens in a new tab) and Kirkus Reviews included it among 6 Novels in Translation to Read Now.(opens in a new tab)

Peruvian author and Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa speaks about the power of literature(opens in a new tab).

Sept. 13-19 was National Arts in Education Week. Read about how arts education benefits kids(opens in a new tab).

Tim Parks writes about the writer-translator equation(opens in a new tab).

The first drive-in book festival(opens in a new tab).

Czech author Milan Kundera accepts the Franz Kafka Prize(opens in a new tab) after decades of exile in France.

A trove of rare stolen books was found under a house(opens in a new tab) in rural Romania.

We need all hands on deck to save our arts and culture economy(opens in a new tab).