After years of running the Best Translated Book Awards without any cash prizes, the University of Rochester has received $25,000 in funding from Amazon to give monetary prizes. The awards, launched by Three Percent--a Web site dedicated to raising the awareness of literature-in-translation launched by Open Letter Books (the non-profit press funded by the University)--celebrate original works of international fiction and poetry that have been published in the States in the prior year.
With the grant money from Amazon, the awards will now offer $5,000 to both the translators and authors of the winning titles. (The remaining $5,000 will be spent to support transporting judges to the ceremony and other incidentals.) Speaking to the grant Chad Post, director of Open Letter Books and Three Percent, said the the cash prize will "greatly enhance the reputation and reach of the award."
The 25 titles that make the longlist for the prize will be announced on January 27, 2011, online at Three Percent and at www.besttranslatedbook.org. Then, on March 24, the shorlist, which will include ten titles, will be unveiled, with the winning titles highlighted at the PEN World Voices Festival in April.
