This year’s prize is for translation from Arabic to English
The Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize was launched in 2010 as part of Harvill Secker's centenary celebrations. It is an annual prize, which focuses on a different language each year, with the aim of recognising the achievements of young translators at the start of their careers. For the 2011 prize Harvill Secker has teamed up with Foyles, and the prize is kindly supported by Banipal. This year’s chosen language is Arabic, and the prize will centre on the short story ‘Layl Qouti' by Mansoura Ez Eldin.
Egyptian novelist and journalist Mansoura Ez Eldin was born in Delta Egypt in 1976. She studied journalism at the Faculty of Media, Cairo University and has since published short stories in various newspapers and magazines: she published her first collection of short stories, Shaken Light, in 2001. This was followed by two novels, Maryam's Maze in 2004 and Beyond Paradise in 2009. Her work has been translated into a number of languages, including an English translation of Maryam's Maze by the American University in Cairo (AUC) Press. In 2010, she was selected for the Beirut39, as one of the 39 best Arab authors below the age of 40. Her second novel Wara’a al-Fardoos (Beyond Paradise) was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the Arabic Booker) 2010. She was also a participant of the inaugural nadwa (writers’ workshop) held by the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in Abu Dhabi in 2009 and was a mentor at the second nadwa in October 2010.
The winning translator will receive £1,000, a selection of Harvill Secker titles and Foyles tokens.
How to enter
Deadline for entries: Friday 29th July 2011
You must be between 18 and 34 years of age on the submission deadline. For further terms and conditions please see the entry form.
Download and print the entry form here (you will need Acrobat Reader to do so)
Download or print the Arabic text here (you will need Acrobat Reader to do so)
Simply send your completed entry form with your translated text to the postal address provided on the entry form. Please note that we are unable to consider entries submitted by email.
If you have any queries, please contact us on: youngtranslatorsprize@randomhouse.co.uk
The judges
Anthony Calderbank (translator)
Anthony Calderbank has been a translator of Arabic literature since the early nineties. He has translated a number of Egyptian novels including Rhadopis of Nubia by Najib Mahfouz, Zaat by Sonallah Ibrahim, and The Tent, Blue Aubergine and Gazelle Tracks by Miral Al-Tahawy, and two novels by Saudi author Yousef Al-Mohaimeed, Wolves of the Crescent Moon and Munira’s Bottle. His translations of short stories include a collection by Nubian writer Haggag Hassan Odoul entitled Nights of Musk: Stories of Old Nubia, and have appeared in a Palestinian collection edited by Nur and Abdulwahab El Messiri entitled Land of Thyme and Stone.
He has contributed to a number of anthologies of modern Arabic Literature including Unbuttoning the Violin (Banipal 2006), the collection Madinah, edited by Joumana Haddad (2008), and the Beirut 39 project. He has also translated numerous pieces for Banipal Magazine. In 2010 he translated an excerpt from Abdo Khal’s novel Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles, which went on to win the Arab Booker Prize.
He has spoken on translation and translation theory at international conferences and cultural gatherings and has conducted translation workshops for the British Council and the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature. His translation of Yousef Al-Mohaimeed’s novel Wolves of the Crescent Moon was shortlisted for the 2010 Jan Michalski Prize. He has lived in the Middle East for many years and is currently based in Riyadh Saudi Arabia where he is Deputy Director of the British Council.
Maya Jaggi (journalist)
Maya Jaggi is an award-winning cultural journalist and an influential critic on international literature. Her arts profiles in the Guardian Review over a decade are credited with enhancing understanding of world writers, from Günter Grass, Umberto Eco and Jose Saramago to Chinua Achebe, Toni Morrison and Mario Vargas Llosa – as well as British figures such as Jeanette Winterson and Sir Tom Stoppard. The late critic Professor Edward Said described her interview with him as 'in a class of its own'. Her work has appeared widely in periodicals including the Guardian, Independent, Sunday Times Culture, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Economist, TLS and BookForum (New York), and in books such as Lives and Works, Writing Across Worlds and Women of the Revolution. She contributes to BBC radio (including Radio 4’s Any Questions?, Front Row and Open Book) and television.
She has interviewed 12 Nobel prizewinners in literature – as well as Arab writers including Mahmoud Darwish, Hanan al-Shaykh, Elias Khoury, Alaa al-Aswany, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Amin Maalouf. She has been a judge of literary awards including the Orange prize, the David Cohen, the Caine, the Commonwealth Writers prize and the Saif Ghobash-Banipal prize for Arabic literary translation. She was educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and is an Associate Fellow of Warwick University and a member of English PEN’s Writers in Prison committee.
Penelope Lively (author)
Penelope Lively was born in Cairo, Egypt and spent her childhood there. She came to England at the age of twelve, in 1945, and went to boarding school in Sussex. She subsequently read Modern History at St. Anne's College, Oxford. In 1957 she married Jack Lively (who died in 1998). They had two children, Josephine and Adam. Jack Lively's academic career took the family from Swansea to Sussex and Oxford, and eventually to Warwick University, where he was Professor of Politics. Penelope Lively now has six grandchildren and lives in London.
Briony Everroad (editor)
Briony Everroad is an editor at Harvill Secker, where she publishes authors Jo Nesbø, Karin Fossum, and Andrey Kurkov, among others. She studied English literature at University College London and in 2002 began working at Random House. Always keen to explore new languages, she spent a term studying French at the Sorbonne in 2006 and is currently learning Spanish. In 2010 she founded the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize.
Entry Guidelines:
To enter: complete the entry form and submit it with one translation of the story ‘Layl Qouti’ by Mansoura Ez Eldin to the following address:
Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize
Harvill Secker
The Random House Group Limited
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London SW1V 2SA
England
Note: entrants submitting a joint translation must complete and include separate forms in the same envelope.
1. T&Cs – By entering this competition you agree to accept and be bound by these terms and conditions.
2. Entrants – This competition is open to anyone aged 18 to 34 years on 29th July 2011 except for employees of Harvill Secker (‘promoter’), Foyles, their families or any other company connected with the competition. The promoter will accept one entry per entrant subject to point 5(c) below. The entrant must not have previously translated (or currently be contracted to translate) more than one full-length work for print or online publication.
3. Dates – Entries must be submitted by Friday 29th July 2011 (‘closing date’). The winning entrant will be notified by telephone in September 2011.
4. Prize – A prize of £1000.00 (one thousand pounds sterling) (‘prize’) will be awarded to the winning entrant.
5. Entry Specifications – Entrants are advised to retain a copy of their translations as the promoter will be unable to return any submitted entry. Each entry must be:
(a) an English translation of the story entitled ‘Layl Qouti’ by Mansoura Ez Eldin (‘story’).
(b) the entrant’s own original work, completed entirely without assistance from professional translators or academic staff. Joint entries involving one translation of the story by a maximum of two translators in accordance with these terms and conditions will be accepted.
(c) submitted as a typeset hard copy with the following specifications: double-spaced, set in 12-point type, with numbered pages and no staples.
(d) Entrants are advised not to include their name on the translation. This is to ensure anonymity.
6. Copyright – The copyright and publishing rights in the story are expressly and fully reserved by Mansoura Ez Eldin. Each entrant undertakes to obtain written permission from Mansoura Ez Eldin before selling, making available or otherwise publishing his/her translation of the story in any form throughout the world.
7. Unacceptable Entries – Entries which do not comply with point 5(c) above, are illegible, submitted electronically, or received after the closing date will not be accepted. The promoter is not responsible for delayed, undelivered or lost entries.
8. Events – Events may occur which render the awarding of the prize impossible due to reasons beyond the control of the promoter and the promoter may, at its absolute discretion, vary, amend, or suspend the prize with or without notice.
9. Judges – The competition will be judged by four judges looking for emerging talent and seeking to identify the most faithful translation of exceptional literary quality of the story. The judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into in relation to their joint or individual decisions or this competition.
10. Winning Entrant – The winning entrant grants the promoter and Foyles all necessary and relevant rights and permissions in relation to the marketing, publicising and publication of the winning entry on www.youngtranslatorsprize.com. The winning entrant agrees to the promoter’s use of his/her name and photograph in relation to any publicity material relating to this competition and the winning entry.
Contact Information:
For inquiries: youngtranslatorsprize@randomhouse.co.uk
For submissions: Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize, Harvill Secker, The Random House Group Limited, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA, England
Website: http://www.vintage-books.co.uk, www.youngtranslatorsprize.com
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