The much-praised move last year to add translation to the National Book Awards was welcomed by the book industry in the harsh light of the isolationism and xenophobia that trademarks Trumpian and Brexitian politics. National Book Foundation executive director Lisa Lucas at the time issued a ringing rationale for the move: “We are a nation of immigrants and we should never stop seeking connection and insight from the myriad cultures that consistently influence and inspire us.”
Like the Booker International (which is a different prize from the Booker Prize for Fiction), the still-young American award honors both a winning book’s author and translator, and is intended, according to the organization’s messaging to the press, “to broaden readership for global voices and spark dialogue around international stories.”
In the case of this prize category the US$10,000 prize is split evenly between the winning author and translator, in line with the industry’s growing understanding that translators—like illustrators—have been too long relegated to second-class status in the business and are to be recognized and honored as the indispensable collaborators they are.
This year’s longlist is fine evocation of the range and spirit of the award, arriving with 10 selections coming into English from 10 other languages: Arabic, Danish, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish.
The list features seven novels, two memoirs, and a collection of essays, resonant with stories and literary traditions of markets including Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Rwanda, and Syria.
One of the longlisted authors this year, a global favorite, is Olga Tokarczuk, whose Flights in its English translation by Jennifer Croft won the £50,000 Man Booker International last year and was a shortlisted finalist for the Translated Literature last year. This year, she’s on the longlist for her Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead in its translation by one of the UK’s most avidly read translators, Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
Publishers submitted a total of 145 books for the 2019 National Book Award for Translated Literature.
The National Book Award finalists will be announced on October 8. And the winners are to be announced at the annual invitation-only National Book Awards ceremony and benefit dinner on November 20 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.
2019 National Book Awards Longlist: Translated Literature
- Naja Marie Aidt, When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl’s Book, translated from Danish by Denise Newman, Coffee House Press
- Eliane Brum, The Collector of Leftover Souls: Field Notes on Brazil’s Everyday Insurrections, translated from Portuguese by Diane Grosklaus Whitty, Graywolf Press
- Nona Fernández, Space Invaders, translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer (Graywolf Press)
- Vigdis Hjorth, Will and Testament, translated from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslundt (Verso Fiction / Verso Books)
- Khaled Khalifa, Death is Hard Work, translated from Arabic by Leri Price (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers)
- László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming, translated from Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet (New Directions)
- Scholastique Mukasonga, The Barefoot Woman, translated from French by Jordan Stump (Archipelago Books)
- Yoko Ogawa, The Memory Police, translated Japanese by Stephen Snyder (Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House)
- Pajtim Statovci, Crossing, translated from Finnish by David Hackston (Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House)
- Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House)
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