News
At the end of November, at the Polish Cultural Institute in London, Anna Zaranko, author of the translation of Chłopi (“The Peasants”), published by Penguin Classics, received the Found in Translation Award, an annual laurel awarded to the author(s) of the best translation of Polish literature into English. The award was presented by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Professor Piotr Wilczek, together with the Director of the Polish Cultural Institute in London, Bartosz Wisniewski.
The jury decided to recognise Anna Zaranko's translation "for her extraordinary ability to recreate the atmosphere, dramatic nature, and humour of the original work".
Anna Zaranko was born in England to a Polish family. She holds a degree in Russian Studies from the University of Durham and went on to hold two British Council scholarships at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She carried out a research project on Polish literature at the University of Oxford (where she co-edited the yearbook POLIN: Studies in Polish Jewry) and later became active in publishing, as an editor, writer, critic, and translator (from Polish, Russian and French). In 2015, she was an American Literary Translators’ Association Mentee, working with Bill Johnson. In 2020, Anna received the Found in Translation Award for her translation of Pamiętnik antybohatera (“The Memoir of an Anti-hero”) by Kornel Filipowicz, published by Penguin Modern Classics in 2019.
Her earlier translations include The Memoir of Anti-hero by Kornel Filipowicz (2019), A Portrait of the Provinces by Jacenty and Katarzyna Dędek (2020), When They Come in Our Dreams by Kornel Filipowicz (Przekrój Magazine, 2019), a number of short stories by Julia Fiedorczuk - Medulla (Przekrój Magazine, 2019), The Midden (Dalkey Archive’s Best European Fiction 2018), Moss (Asymptote Journal, 5 June 2018), and War (Words Without Borders, February 2017), Warsaw Ghetto Diary and Letters by Janusz Korczak (Vallentine Mitchell Publishers, 2018), The Doll by Bolesław Prus (original translation by David Welsh, revised by Dariusz Tołczyk and Anna Zaranko, Central European University Press, 1996), and short stories by Hanna Krall and Urszula Benka (Storm: Writing from East and West, 1991-1992).
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Previously awarded
2022 – Jennifer Croft for The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk (Fitzcarraldo Editions, the U.K., 2021) (Riverhead Books, the U.S., 2022)
2021 – Ewa Małachowska-Pasek and Megan Thomas for The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz (Northwestern University Press, 2020)
2020 – Anna Zaranko for The Memoir of an Anti-hero by Kornel Filipowicz (Penguin Modern Classics, 2019)
2019 – Madeline G. Levine for Collected Stories by Bruno Schulz (Northwestern University Press, 2018)
2018 – Jennifer Croft for Flights by Olga Tokarczuk (Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) and Riverhead Books (US), 2017)
2017 – Piotr Florczyk for Building the Barricade by Anna Świrszczyńska (Tavern Books, 2016)
2016 – Bill Johnston for Twelve Stations by Tomasz Różycki (Zephyr Press, 2015)
2015 – Ursula Phillips for Choucas by Zofia Nałkowska (Northern Illinois University Press, 2014)
2014 – Philip Boehm for Chasing the King of Hearts by Hanna Krall (Peirene Press, 2013)
2013 – Antonia Lloyd-Jones for the entirety of her translating output in 2012
2012 – Joanna Trzeciak for Sobbing Superpower by Tadeusz Różewicz (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011)
2011 – Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak for Here by Wisława Szymborska (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)
2010 – Danuta Borchardt for Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz (Grove Press, 2009)
2009 – Antonia Lloyd-Jones for The Last Supper by Paweł Huelle (Serpent’s Tail, 2008)
2008 – Bill Johnston for New Poems by Tadeusz Różewicz (Archipelago Books, 2007)
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The Found in Translation Award
The award was established in 2008. It is given every year to an author/authors of the best Polish literature translation into English that was published in a book form in the past calendar year. The award is a one-month residence in Kraków, Poland with a monthly grant of 2,000 PLN, a flight to and from Kraków and a financial award of 16,000 PLN.
The award is given by the jury consisting of representatives - organisers: The Polish Book Institute Warsaw / Krakow, The Polish Cultural Institute London, and The Polish Cultural Institute New York as well as translators, the laureates of the last two editions.