Filter packs a big punch: the two Filter Translation Prizes 2023, including the brand new one for children's and youth books, have been awarded to no fewer than four translators! The regular prize goes to Yond Boeke & Patty Krone for Fortunes by Luigi Pirandello (Van Oorschot). The prize for the most outstanding translation of a children's and youth book was awarded to Lies Lavrijsen and Els Dumez-Blocken for Jefferson By Jean-Claude Mourlevat (Lannoo).

The judges are at a loss for words to praise the two award-winning translations, which express a vibrant and high-minded translation climate and demonstrate par excellence what translation is capable of. Pirandello's primal Italian stories come alive again, the extraordinary animal book sparkles with new humour. Fortunes crackles and tingles from the first to the last page, the jury report said. Jefferson is a children's and youth book 'that has several translation challenges that the translators have solved with verve,' say the judges for the translated children's and youth books. 'A book also bursting with creative inventions and where the joy of translation shines through,' they add. Yond Boek, Els Dumez-Blocken, Patty Krone and Lies Lavrijsen can pocket that.

Prize money

The prize money for both prizes is €10,000 and was made available by the GAU (General Publishers Group) and the CPNB (Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek). Both organisations thus express the importance they attach to good translations and translators. The awards will be presented in cooperation with the ILFU International Literature Festival Utrecht by Filter Foundation and are a tribute to the translator's creativity in solving translation problems arising from the inherent, special nature of the work to be translated.

Nominations

Fourteen translators (including four duos) of ten translations were nominated this year: in addition to the winners mentioned above, they were Anneke Alderlieste (for Looking through a keyhole. Diaries and reminiscences of Roger Martin du Gard, De Arbeiderspers), Harm Damsma & Niek Miedema (for Power by Hernan Diaz, Atlas Contact), Pieter van der Drift & Manon Smits (for The greatest of all by Davide Morosinotto, Pelckmans), Ria van Hengel for Concrete by Thomas Bernhard, Wings), Annelies Jorna (for Ultra Dark and the Guardians of Wild Sea by Philip Reeve, Ploegsma), Jan Myshkin (for The hundred new novelties or The Burgundian Decamerone, Wings), Maria Postema (for Ghost by Jason Reynolds, Condor) and Edward van de Vendel (for Yellow kayak By Nina Laden, Boycott Publishers).

The juries

The jury of the Filter Translation Prize 2023 consisted of Marcel van den Boogert, Elma Drayer, Eline Jongsma, Cees Koster and Maartje Kroonen. The Filter Translation Prize jury for children's & youth books consisted of Anne van Buul, Nathifa Elshot, Enne Koens, Daan Stoffelsen and Eva Wissenburg.

The winners were announced live on Tuesday 3 October 2023 at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht during the ILFU International Literature Festival Utrecht. The extensive jury report can be read at www.tijdschrift-filter.nl and on www.ilfu.com.

Extra - a podcast about translated children's classics

On Friday, November 10, the CPNB in collaboration with author and nominated translator Edward van de Vendel, the three-part podcast series ZWEINSTEIN, SNOSKOMMERS AND VILLA KAKELBONT - about translating the greatest children's classics. This podcast discusses the work of three translators without whom Dutch readers would never have been introduced to some of the greatest icons of international children's literature: Rita Verschuur (Astrid Lindgren), Huberte Vriesendorp (Roald Dahl) and Wiebe Budding (J.K. Rowling). How did they experience working on the now-classic books? What were the most difficult and the happiest aspects of their translation work? How was their contact with the author? Edward van de Vendel discusses that and more with them or with people who know their work well.