In addition to the traditional Filter Translation Prize for the most extraordinary translation of the year, a new, additional prize will be launched for the first time in 2023, and it will be for translated children's and youth books - with a separate jury, a completely separate statute and with a prize money of €10,000. Both juries struggled with a luxury problem during their search for the best translation, in their own words: a glut of wonderful translations appeared. And out of this came wonderful nominations, twice five in other words. The criteria are clear: does the publication enrich Dutch culture? And more to the point: do children from an early age get good quality translations? The nominations are conclusive and say resoundingly: yes.
The nominations
For the Filter Translation price 2023, the following five translations by seven translators are nominated:
- Anneke Alderlieste for Looking through a keyhole. Diaries and memories By Roger Martin du Gard (De Arbeiderspers)
- Yond Boeke & Patty Krone for Fortunes By Luigi Pirandello (Van Oorschot)
- Harm Damsma & Niek Miedema for Power By Hernan Diaz (Atlas Contact)
- Ria van Hengel for Concrete By Thomas Bernhard (Wings)
- Jan H. Myshkin for The hundred new novelties or The Burgundian Decamerone (Wings)
For the Filter Translation Prize 2023 for children's and youth books the following five translations are nominated, also by seven translators:
- Pieter van der Drift & Manon Smits for The greatest of all by Davide Morosinotto (Pelckmans)
- Annelies Jorna for Ultra Dark and the Guardians of Wild Sea By Philip Reeve (Ploegsma)
- Lies Lavrijsen & Els Dumez-Blocken for Jefferson by Jean-Claude Mourlevat (Lannoo)
- Maria Postema for Ghost by Jason Reynolds (Condor)
- Edward van de Vendel for Yellow kayak By Nina Laden (Boycott Publishing)
The prize money
The prize money for both prizes amounts to €10,000 and was made available by the GAU (Group of General Publishers) and the CPNB (Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek) respectively. Both organisations thus express the importance they attach to good translations and translators.
The Filter Translation Prizes will be awarded on 3 October by the Filter Foundation during the ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) and are a reward for the translator's creativity in solving translation problems arising from the inherent, special nature of the work to be translated.
The juries
The jury of the Filter Translation Prize 2023 consists of Marcel van den Boogert, Elma Drayer, Eline Jongsma, Cees Koster and Maartje Kroonen.
The Filter Translation Prize jury for children's & youth books consists of Anne van Buul, Nathifa Elshot, Enne Koens, Daan Stoffelsen and Eva Wissenburg.
A detailed justification of the nominations will be available in the new Filter which will be published by publisher M10books in early July, and on the sites www.tijdschrift-filter.nl and www.ilfu.com.
The ceremony
The winners will be announced live on Tuesday 3 October 2023 at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht during the annual ILFU, the largest literature festival in the Netherlands and a daily online platform for literature.
The festival will take place from 23 September to 7 October. Recurring festival elements are the Book Talks with international and national authors, Exploring Stories: writers on pressing contemporary themes, Young Adult Literature Festival Utrecht (YALFU), programmes around writers from the literary heritage and programmes for new talent such as the NK Poetry Slam. The festive 40th edition of The Night of Poetry in 2023 will conclude the festival.
www.ilfu.com