World Fantasy Awards Recognize Translations

The short lists for this year’s World Fantasy Awards were announced this week, and can be found in full here. They contain a number of works of interest to us.

In the Anthology category there is Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, edited by Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown (Small Beer Press).

In the Collection category there is Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck (Cheeky Frawg), one story from which, “Augusta Prima”, is short-listed for our awards.

And in the Special Award Professional category there is a mention for Lucia Graves for her translation of The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Weidenfeld & Nicholson; Harper).

We are delighted to see this recognition of translators and translated work in these major awards.

Successes for Haikasoru

Haikasoru, the California-based company that specializes in translating Japanese SF&F, has scored two notable successes of late.

Firstly Harmony, written by Project Itoh and translated by Alexander O. Smith, has been awarded a Special Citation (effectively second place) in this year’s Philip K. Dick Award. The PKD is awarded to the best paperback SF&F novel published in the USA in the year of eligibility. This year’s winner was The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (Pyr). The winners were announced at Norwescon in Seattle. Further details, including video of the award ceremony, are available here.

In addition Haikasoru editor, Nick Mamatas, has been nominated in the Best Editor, Long Form category of the prestigious Hugo Awards. A full list of nominees is available here.

Giraud to Enter SF Hall of Fame

French comic creator, Jean Giraud (Moebius), is one of this year’s inductees to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Giraud shot to fame in the 1970s via the magazine, Métal Hurlant, which appeared in English translation as Heavy Metal. Two of his most famous creations are The Airtight Garage and Arzach. According to Locus, Giraud will be inducted at a ceremony in Seattle in June alongside Harlan Ellison, Vincent Di Fate and Gardner Dozois.

Does anyone know who was responsible for translating Métal Hurlant?

Ajvaz on BTBA Long List

The long list for this year’s Best Translated Book Award (open to all works of literature) has been announced. The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz, translated from the Czech by Andrew Oakland (Dalkey Archive) is amongst the listed works. Ajvaz’s book is one of many also being looked at by our jury. The full BTBA long list is available here, and you can find links to samples of all the listed works on GalleyCat.

Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Awards

We have been sent a Call for Entries for the 2010-2011 Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Awards. Here’s the introduction:

Stephen C. Soong (1919–1996) was a prolific writer as well as an active figure in the promotion of translation education and research. To commemorate his contributions in this field, the Stephen C. Soong Translation Studies Awards were set up in 1997 by the Research Centre for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, with a donation from the Soong family. It gives recognition to academics who have made contributions to original research in Chinese Translation Studies, particularly in the use of first-hand sources for historical and cultural investigations.

Full details of how to enter are below the cut…
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Translated Collection Wins World Fantasy Award

The 2010 World Fantasy Awards were announced in Columbus Ohio on Sunday. The Best Collection category finished in a tie. One of the winners was a well-known local favorite: Gene Wolfe, whose Very Best of Gene Wolfe was published by Tor. The other winner was There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin). The stories were translated by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers. The website, The Voice of Russia, profiles Ms. Petrushevskaya here and celebrates her win here.

Another Success At The Gemmells

Last year the inaugural David Gemmell Awards caused something of a stir when the best novel price (the Legend Award) went to a translated book, Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski. This year saw the introduction of a new category for debut fantasy novels, and it was won by Pierre Pevel’s The Cardinal’s Blades, translated from the French by Tom Clegg. Full details here.