2015 PEN/Heim Translation Series
PEN American Center is excited to showcase the diverse projects awarded grants this year from the PEN/Heim Translation Fund. Each week through December, we’ll be featuring excerpts from each project and essays by the translators about what originally drew them to their projects and why these projects feel relevant now. The Fund, which awards grants of $2,000 to $4,000 to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English, received a record 226 applications this year spanning a wide array of languages of origin, including Mongolian, Icelandic, Czech, Hebrew, Portuguese, Japanese, and Awadhi/Bhojpuri Hindi.
Since 2009, the Fund’s annual contribution for grant awards has been augmented by support from Amazon.
three arches : böbrach
Sophie Seita is the recipient of a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for her translation of poetry by German poet Uljana Wolf. More
A Love Letter to Brazilian Modernism: On Translating Veronica Stigger
Brazilian writer Veronica Stigger's award-winning debut novel is a groundbreaking work of world-class fiction by an author unknown in the English-speaking world. More
Opisanie swiata
With her translation, Perry introduces the English-speaking world to the stunning debut novel by a young writer on the cutting-edge of Brazilian literature. More
Introducing the Literature of Madagascar: On Translating Naivo
Despite wide academic interest in post-colonial Francophone literature, English speakers currently have almost no exposure to this beautiful and distinct segment of African culture. More
Beyond the Rice Fields
The first novel from Madagascar ever to be translated into English, Beyond the Rice Fields is set during the time Madagascar was ruled by a monarchy and first being… More
Mongolia’s Modernist Voice: On Translating Tseveendorjin Oidov
Tseveendorjin Oidov stands alone in the Mongolian literary scene as a poet who has for more than 40 years pursued his own path, apparently disinterested in the fashions of… More
The End of the Dark Era
Simon Wickhamsmith is the recipient of a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for his translation of a collection of poems by Mongolian poet Tseveendorjin Oidov. More
Holi Songs of Demerara
Rajiv Mohabir is the recipient of a 2015 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for his translation of Lalbihari Sharma’s Holi Songs of Demerara, the only known literary work by one… More
My Life, I Lapped it Up: On Translating the Poetry of Edoardo Sanguineti
Untitled, lowercased, long-lined, the poems in Reisebilder resemble pages in a flipbook, detailing brief encounters in restaurants, museums and hotel rooms. More
The Selected Poems of Edoardo Sanguineti
The first comprehensive English translation of one of post-war Italy’s most important poets. Edoardo Sanguineti’s oeuvre spans the avant garde of the early '60s to the more introspective romanticism… More
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