Congratulations to Derick Mattern and John Angliss!

On 8 November, we had a panel discussion led by Güven Turan (poet, writer and translator), Maureen Freely (writer and translator) and Murat Belge (academic, translator and literary critic). They took part in a discussion, moderated by Sırma Köksal (Cheif Editor, Everest Publishing) to share their experience of working as a translator and answered questions. The discussion was followed by a reception where the winners of the Young Translators’ Prize were announced. The event is organised by British Council in collaboration with Everest Publishing.

The Best Poetry Translation awarded to Derick Mattern and the Best Prose Translation awarded to John Angliss. Both winners will receive a tailored translation mentorship in the UK, organised and designed by the British Centre for Literary Translation. This mentorship also aims to develop opportunities for commercial and collaborative work in the future. For the prose mentorship, the mentor for the winning entrant will be  Maureen Freely and for the poetry mentorship, the mentor will be Sasha Dugdale.

The winning translations were chosen by a panel of expert judges including Maureen Freely, Sasha Dugdale (poet, playwright and Editor of Modern Poetry in Translation) Daniel Hahn (Programme Director, British Centre for Literary Translation), Mevlüt Ceylan (Yunus Emre Institute, London), Susanna Nicklin (Director Literature, British Council), İlknur Özdemir (publisher and translator, Kırmızı Kedi Publishing) and Tarık Günersel (Head of PEN, Turkey).

Earlier in the day, 20 shortlisted applicants for the Young Translators’ Prize joined workshops led by Clifford Endres, Güven Turan and Maureen Freely. These shortlisted translators will be given an opportunity to have their translations published in altKitap, an electronic book platform. AltKitap.com is the first publisher of books for free on the internet in Turkey.

To apply for the Prize for Best Prose Translation, applicants submitted their translation of one or more of the following pieces: “Saman Kokusu” by İnci Aral; “Prensi Olmayan Masal Kitabı” by Fatih Erdoğan or "70 Model Aşklar" by Can Dündar and to apply for the Prize for Best Poetry Translation, they submitted a translation of one or both of the following poems: "Nişanlılar Müzesi" by Haydar Ergülen or "Uzak Günlükler" by Küçük İskender.

Judging Process:

We received 259 applications across 10 countries. The applications were sent anonymously to the panel of judges in Turkey and the UK who collaboratively reviewed the entries. Maureen Freely gave the following comments about how the winners were chosen and how the Young Translators' Prize will benefit literature from Turkey:

"The aim of the mentorship programme is to identify young literary translators who are close to being ready to enter the profession, and to help them make that transition.  We are therefore looking for translators who have a mastery of the two languages and who are also well versed in the techniques and strategies of literary English.  This involves paying close attention not just to the surface meaning but also to the emotional and intellectual force of the Turkish text, and therefore it requires an ability to understand how to create a text of the same force in English.

The level of the submissions I saw was very high.  The strongest candidates are certainly ready to work at the professional level, and that is good news, because there is so much interesting work being written in Turkey that deserves a wider audience, and it will be translators who make that possible."

Since Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, there has been a growing interest in the UK in writing from Turkey and with Turkey as the Market Focus at The London Book Fair in April 2013, we will shine a spotlight on writing from Turkey for an international audience."

See the photos from the event.

British Council Translation Prize in Press

Blog story by John Angliss - winner of the Prize for Best Prose Translation from Turkish into English

If you have question, please email arts.info@britishcouncil.org.tr