This year's prize is for translation from Portuguese (Brazilian focus) to English.
Now in its fourth year, the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize aims to recognise the achievements of young translators at the start of their careers. The prize is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 34, with no restriction on country of residence. It was launched in 2010 as part of Harvill Secker’s centenary celebrations, and is an annual prize, which focuses on a different language each year. This year’s chosen language is Portuguese, and the prize will centre on the short story ‘O sucesso’ by Brazilian author Adriana Lisboa.
Harvill Secker is delighted to be continuing its partnership with the British Centre for Literary Translation. The winner will participate in the BCLT’s mentorship scheme, working alongside renowned translator Margaret Jull Costa. The winning translator will also be invited to participate in Crossing Border festival in November 2013.
About Adriana Lisboa
Adriana Lisboa was born in Rio de Janeiro. With degrees in Music and Literature, she is the author of ten widely translated fiction titles, including five novels, a collection of flash fiction, and books for children. She was hailed as a new star of Brazilian literature after the publication of her 2001 novel Sinfonia em Branco (‘Symphony in White’), which received the prestigious José Saramago Prize. In 2007, she was selected by the Hay Festival/Bogota World Book Capital as one of the 39 highest profile Latin American writers under the age of 39. Her latest novel, Crow Blue, will be published in the UK by Bloomsbury in October 2013, translated by Alison Entrekin. (Picture by Julie Harris.)
How to Enter
Deadline for entries: Friday 2nd August 2013
Please note entries must be received by this date: late entries, regardless of postmark, will not be considered.
You must be between 18 and 34 years of age on the submission deadline. For further terms and conditions please see the entry form.
Print the entry form here (you will need Acrobat Reader to do so)
Download or print the Portuguese 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.
The winning translator will receive £1000 and a selection of Harvill Secker titles. The winner will also participate in the BCLT mentorship scheme and in Crossing Border festival
If you have any queries, please contact us at: youngtranslatorsprize@randomhouse.co.uk
The Judges
Margaret Jull Costa (translator)
Margaret Jull Costa has been a literary translator for nearly twenty-five years and has translated many novels and short stories by Portuguese, Spanish and Latin American writers, including Eça de Queiroz, Fernando Pessoa, José Saramago, Javier Marías, Bernardo Atxaga, Alberto Barrera Tyszka and Luis Fernando Verissimo. She has won various prizes for her work, most recently, the 2012 Calouste Gulbenkian Prize with Teolinda Gersão’s The Word Tree, for which she was also runner-up with António Lobo Antunes’s The Land at the End of the World.
Naomi Alderman (author)
Naomi Alderman grew up in London and attended Oxford University and UEA. In 2006 she won the Orange Award for New Writers, and in 2007 she was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and one of Waterstones’ 25 Writers for the Future. She is the author of four novels: Disobedience, The Lessons, The Liars’ Gospel and the Doctor Who tie-in novel Borrowed Time. Naomi broadcasts regularly, has guest-presented Front Row on BBC Radio 4 and writes regularly for Prospect and the Guardian. From 2004 to 2007 Naomi was lead writer on the BAFTA-shortlisted alternate reality game Perplex City. She’s written online games for Penguin, the BBC, and other clients. In 2012, she co-created the top-selling fitness game and audio adventure Zombies, Run!.
Ángel Gurría-Quintana (literary reviewer)
Ángel Gurría-Quintana is a historian, journalist and translator of Spanish and Portuguese. He has written for the Financial Times since 2003, specialising in literature in translation. His work has also appeared in the Observer, the Guardian, The Paris Review, Brick, granta.com and the translation blog Three Percent. A regular presence at the Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty, his translations from Portuguese include the stories by Beatriz Bracher, Bernardo Carvalho, Milton Hatoum, Reinaldo Moraes and Cristovão Tezza in the compilation Dez/Ten (2012). More recently he co-edited and translated the forthcoming anthology, Other Carnivals: New Writing from Brazil (Full Circle Editions). He works at the University of Cambridge.
Ellie Steel (editor)
Ellie Steel is an editor at Harvill Secker, where she publishes Manuel Rivas, Karin Fossum and Andrey Kurkov, among others. She is the editor of the ‘A View from This Bridge’ blog at www.internationalwriting.co.uk.
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