The Polish Book Institute

The translation of Olga Tokarczuk's Bieguni (“Flights”) by Jennifer Croft made it to the longlist of books nominated for the 12th edition of an American translation award called the Best Translated Book Award. The translation of the novel awarded with a prestigious Booker Award and nominated for the National Book Award has been accomplished with the support of the Book Institute as part of the ©Poland Translation Programme.

Below is a list of nominated books:

Best Translated Book Award 2019 – nominations in the Prose category

• In Koli Jean Bofane, Congo Inc.: Bismarck’s Testament, translated from the French by Marjolijn de Jager 
• Ahmed Bouanani, The Hospital, translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud
• Aurora Cáceres, A Dead Rose, translated from the Spanish by Laura Kanost
• Xue Can, Love in the New Millennium, translated from the Chinese by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen
• Patrick Chamoiseau, Slave Old Man, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale
• Stig Dagerman, Wedding Worries, translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlen i Lo Dagerman
• Virginie Despentes, Pretty Things, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan
• Negar Djavadi, Disoriental, translated from the French by Tina Kover
• Frankétienne, Dézafi, translated from the French by Asselin Charles
• Rodrigo Fresán, Bottom of the Sky, translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden
• Alisa Ganiewa, Bride and Groom, translated from the Russian by Carol Apollonio
• Norah Lange, People in the Room, translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Whittle
• Roque Larraquy, Comemadre, translated from the Spanish by Heather Cleary
• Shahriar Mandanipour, Moon Brow, translated from the Persian by Khalili Sara
• Clemens Meyer, Bricks and Mortar, translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire
• Sayaka Murata, Convenience Store Woman, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori
• Guadalupe Nettel, After the Winter, translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey
• Ondjaki, Transparent City, translated from the Portuguese by Stephen Henighan
• Masatsugo Ono, Lion Cross Point, translated from the Japanese by Angus Turvill
• Anne Serre, The Governesses, translated from the French by Mark Hutchinson
• Ófeigur Sigurðsson, Öræfï, translated from the Icelandic by Lytton Smith
• Sjón, Codex 1962, translated from the Icelandic by Victoria Cribb
• Olga Tokarczuk, Flights, translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft
• Dubravka Ugresić, Fox, translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac i David Williams
• Hideo Yokoyama, Seventeen, translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai

This year's jury awarding the prize in the category of prose includes: Pierce Alquist (BookRiot), Caitlin L. Baker (Island Books), Kasia Bartoszyńska (Monmouth College), Tara Cheesman (literary critic), George Carroll (litintranslation.com), Adam Hetherington (reader), Keaton Patterson (Brazos Bookstore), Sofia Samatar (writer), Ely Watson (A Room of One’s Own library).

Best Translated Book Award 2019 – nominations in the Poetry category:

• Tenella Boni, The Future Has an Appointment with the Dawn, translated from the French by Todd Fredson
• Roja Chamankar, Dying in a Mother Tongue, translated from the Persian by Blake Atwood
• Jure Detela, Moss & Silver, translated from the Slovenian by Raymond Miller and Tatjana Jamnik
• Hilda Hilst, Of Death. Minimal Odes, translated from the Portuguese by Laura Cesarco Eglin
• Kim Hysesoon, Autobiography of Death, translated from the Korean by Don Mee Choi
• Luljeta Lleshanaku, Negative Space, translated from the Albanian by Ani Gjika
• Frederike Mayrocker, Scardanelli, translated from the German by Jonathan Larson
• Asta Olivia Nordenhof, the easiness and the loneliness, translated from the Danish by Susanna Nied
• Francis Ponge, Nioque of the Early-Spring, translated from the French by Jonathan Larson
• Pable de Rokha, Architecture of a Dispersed Life, translated from the Spanish by Urayoán Noel

This year's jury awarding the prize in the category of poetry includes: Jarrod Annis (Greenlight Bookstore), Katrine Øgaard Jensen (EuropeNow), Tess Lewis (writer and translator), Aditi Machado (poet and translator), and Laura Marris (writer and translator).

The list of books nominated for the finals will be announced on Wednesday, May 15th. The winning authors and translators will each receive $5,000.