Susan Bernofsky Longlisted for Man Booker International Prize for Translation
Associate Professor and Head of the Translation Program, Susan Bernofsky was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for her translation of Jenny Erpenbeck's novel, Go, Went, Gone.
The prize, which celebrates "the finest works of translated fiction from around the world," is awarded annually for a single book which is translated into English and published in the UK. The work of translators is equally recognized and rewarded, with the £50,000 prize divided between the author and the translator of the winning entry. Each shortlisted author and translator will receive £1,000 each.
The longlist was selected by a panel of five judges, including writers Michael Hofmann, Hari Kunzru, Tim Martin and Helen Oyeyemi. The panel was chaired by Lisa Appignanesi OBE, author and cultural commentator.
"Judging this Man Booker International Prize has been an exhilarating adventure," said Appignanesi OBE. "We have travelled across countries, cultures, imaginations, somehow to arrive at what could have been an even longer longlist. It’s one which introduces a wealth of talent, a variety of forms and some writers little known in English before. It has great writing and translating energy and we hope readers take as much pleasure in discovering the work as we did."
Go, Went, Gone, which centers around a retired classics professor who becomes engaged with a group of refugees living in a nursing home while the German government decides their rights in the country, was praised by the New York Times for being "an important novel, both aesthetically and morally" and "elegantly translated" by Bernofsky.
Bernofsky, who directs the Literary Translation program at Columbia and was awarded the first Warwick Prize for Women in Translation in November, focused on the gender parity of the longlist this year in a blog post.
"One of the many great things about this longlist is the number of women authors included on it (close to half), which I couldn’t be happier to see," she wrote.
The shortlist of six books will be announced April 12 at an event at Somerset House in London, and the winner of the 2018 prize will be announced in May at a dinner at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.