Porter Anderson, editor of Publishnews Perspectives, reviews the translated works that are on the list of the National Book Award 2021, that have been recognized in awards such as the International Booker, the Saif Ghobash Banipal, the Valle Inclán and the Prix Mondial Cino del Duca. English translations from seven languages.
The second list of categories that has been announced in the selection of the 2021 National Book Awards in the United States is that of Translated Literature. This category, the most recent of the five, was implemented in 2018 and is no different from the International Booker Award, which similarly recognizes works translated into English.
For example, here is “When We Cease To Understand the World” (Un verdor terrible in Spanish) by Benjamin Labatut, as translated by Adrian Nathan West. It was shortlisted for the International Booker in June in its British edition of the Pushkin Press. Another translation that our readers are familiar with is that of Sasha Dugdale of Maria Stepanova's “In Memory of Memory”, published by the English publishing house Fitzcarraldo Editions. It was also shortlisted for the International Booker, which was won, of course, by David Diop and translator Anna Maschovakis.
These are the selected works:
- Waiting for the Waters To Rise, by Maryse Condé
- Winter in Sokcho, by Elisa Shua Dusapin
- Blossom Paradise, by Ge FeiPeach
- The Twilight Zone, by Nona Fernández
- On the Origin of the Species and Other Stories, by Bo-Young Kim
- When We Cease To Understand the World, by Benjamin Labatut
- Rabbit Island: Stories, by Elvira Navarro
- An Inventory of Losses, by Judith Schalansky
- In Memory of Memory, by Maria Stepanova
- Planet of Clay, by Samar Yazbek
