News

Twelve books from 11 countries and 11 languages have won English PEN’s flagship translation awards, and Canzone di Guerra by Daša Drndić (August 10, 1946, Zagreb  - June 5, 2018, Rijeka) joined this stellar list! UK edition published by Istros Books was translated by the renowned Celia Hawkesworth, who already worked on several, award-winning translations of Daša Drndić’s works. As usual, books are selected based on outstanding literary quality, and "they represent some of the most exciting literature in translation arriving into the UK market", concluded Will Forrester, translation and international manager at English PEN.

So far, 12 award-winning books featured on International Booker Prize longlists, while Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World (Pushkin Press), supported by PEN Translates, was shortlisted for the 2021 prize. 
 

The PEN Translates award winners in full:

• Behind the Sun by Bushra Al-Maqtari, translated from the Arabic by Sawad Hussain (Tilted Axis Press). Country of origin: Yemen.
• Voices of the Nakba: The Making of an Archive by Diana Allan, translated from the Arabic by Hoda Adra (Pluto Press). Country of origin: Canada.
• Canzone di Guerra by Daša Drndić, translated from the Croatian by Celia Hawkesworth (Istros Books). Country of origin: UK.
• Our Dead Skin by Natalia Garcia Freire, translated from the Spanish by Victor Meadowcroft (Oneworld Publications). Country of origin: Ecuador.
• Strega by Johanne Lykke Holm, translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel (Lolli Editions). Country of origin: Denmark.
• The Bankruptcy by Júlia Lopes de Almeida, translated from the Portuguese by Cintia Kozonoi Vezzani and Jason Rhys Parry (UCL Press). Country of origin: Brazil.
• A Soldier's Song by Dónall Mac Amhlaigh, translated from the Irish by Mícheál Ó hAodha (Parthian Books). Country of origin: Ireland.
• End of August by Yu Miri, translated from the Japanese by Morgan Giles (Tilted Axis Press). Country of origin: Japan.
• Kolobok, translated from the Russian by Sian Valis (Fontanka). Country of origin: Russia.
• Things I Didn't Throw Out by Marcin Wicha, translated from the Polish by Marta Dziurosz (Daunt Books Publishing). Country of origin: Poland.
• Flowers of Lhasa by Tsering Yangkyi, translated from the Tibetan by Christopher Peacock (Balestier Press). Country of origin: China.
• Cocoon by Zhang Yueran, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (World Editions). Country of origin: China.