The Bookseller.com

8th September 2008

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Small press finds success in translation

10.06.08

The Guardian hails "good news for translated fiction and small presses", following three awards for literary translations into English going to independent publishers in recent days.

In this country, Margaret Jull Costa's translation of The Maias by Portuguese novelist Eca de Queiroz was awarded the Oxford Weidenfeld prize last Friday (6th June). This year, the translation of The Maias also secured the $3,000 PEN/Book-of-the Month club translation prize.

The news was particularly sweet for publisher Dedalus press, which is currently engaged with Costa in a nine-book, 20-year project to translate all of De Queiroz's work. The project looked likely to fail last year when Arts Council England withdrew lifeline funding for the operation, but private sponsor--the Informa publishing group--stepped in with a commitment to support the imprint for another two years.

Finally, translator David Dollenmayer received the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his version of Moses Rosenkranz's Childhood: An Autobiographical Fragment yesterday (9th June).

Guardian

Books Independents Prize Dedalus