The Bulgarian translator, Anzelina Penceva was awarded the Premia Bohemica for her outstanding promotion of Czech literature at the 16th International Book World Prague Fair last Friday.

Anzelina Penceva has translated many Czech books into the Bulgarian language in recent years. Amongst them are Milan Kindera, Bohumil Hrabal, Karel Capek, Vladimir Neff, and Jiri Kratochvil. The Premia Bohemica is presented to one exceptional translator every year to recognize his or her contribution to the Czech literature. The previous 2009 award was won by Duong Tat Tu from Vietnam.

The Premia Bohemica is one amongst many other translation awards. There are quite a few translation awards for acknowledging English translators in particular. Here are some of the well known English translation awards in the UK and USA.

The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation

This award is designed to showcase the excellent quality and diversity of English translated fictions for young readers. The first award dates back to 1996 and it is only presented every two years to one distinguished translator. The award aims to encourage more translation of foreign language children books to English and publishing them in the UK. According to The UK English-Speaking Union which awards this recognition, most short-listed fiction includes books translated from Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Yiddish. The 2009 award winner was Sarah Ardizzone for her translation of "Toby Alone" from French, which also landed her a £2000 prize.

The Best Translated Book Award

This is an annual award presented to the best original translation to English for any book published within the past year. The award is sponsored by the Open Letter Books organisation, which is the book translation press for the University of Rochester. The award started in 2008 with the aim to honour and celebrate the translators, editors, publishers and their literary supporters. There are two awards, one for best fiction translation, and the other for best poetry translation. The winner for the 2010 fiction translation award was "The Confessions of Noa Weber" translated by Dalya Bilu. On the other hand, Elena Fanailova won the poetry translation award with her work on "The Russian Version".

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

This award was first given by the British newspaper ‘The Independent’ in the 1990 but stopped after 1995. It was then revived in 2001 with the support from Arts Council England. The award is designed to honour modern fiction translation works in the UK. The entries can be either short stories or fictions, but they must be published in English translation in the UK during the year before the award is given. The award acknowledges both the original writer and the translator. Therefore, the author must be alive at the time when the translated version is published in the UK. The 2009 winners were Evelio Rosero (original author) and Anne McLean (translator) for the literature "The Armies".

The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize

The award recognizes translators for their outstanding work in translating any book into English from any other living European language. The prize was first awarded back in 1999 with the aim to honour the craft of translation, and recognise its cultural importance. Anthea Bell won the £2000 cash price in 2009 for her work on "How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone" by Sasa Stanisic.

Translation Awards

Translation is a skilful craft and translators play an important role in enriching our culture. If you have a friend who is translator, share this article with them or better still, nominate them for the awards.