Our friends at the Poetry Translation Centre have just announced the shortlist for the inaugural Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation. The PTC launched the Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation to recognise the best book of poetry by a living poet from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East published in English translation and to champion the art of poetry in translation. In its first year the prize has been judged by the poets and translators Alireza Abiz, Ida Hadjivayanis and Leo Boix.
The shortlist features books translated from Japanese, Arabic, Korean, Spanish and Chinese. The selection celebrates both the best of modern poetry from across the globe and showcases a range of different translation methodologies highlighting excellence in literary translation. The shortlisted books are:
Factory Girls by Takako Arai
Translated from Japanese by Jeffrey Angles, Jen Crawford, Carol Hayes, Rina Kikuchi, You Nakai and Sawako Nakayasu. (Published by Action Books, 2019)
A Boat to Lesbos and other poems by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Translated from Arabic by Camilo Gómez-Rivas and Allison Blecker. (Published by Banipal Books, 2018)
Incomprehensible Lesson by Fawzi Karim
In versions by Anthony Howell after translations from the Arabic made by the author. (Published by Carcanet Press Ltd, 2019)
Hysteria by Kim Yideum
Translated from Korean by Jake Levine, Soeun Seo & Hedgie Choi. (Published by Action Books, 2019)
Tiawanaku: Poems from the Mother Coqa by Judith Santopietro
Translated from Spanish by Ilana Luna. (Published by Orca Libros, 2019)
Anniversary Snow by Yang Lian
Translated from Chinese by Brian Holton with further translations by WN Herbert, L. Leigh, Liang Lizhen, Pascale Petit, Fiona Sampson, George Szirtes and Joshua Weiner. (Published by Shearsman Books, 2019)
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