EBRD Launches a Fiction Prize, Seeking Translated Books from Four Arab Countries

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has launched its first-ever literary prize, seeking the celebrate and reward “this year’s best work of literary fiction from the Bank’s countries of operations translated into English”:

The EBRD is launching the €20,000 prize — which will be split equally between author and translator — with the British Council. Eligible works will be written in any language of the EBRD’s 37 countries of operations and brought out by a UK publisher.

Two runners-up and their translators will receive a prize of €1,000 each.

The four-person judging panel, led by journalist Rosie Goldsmith, is set to announce a shortlist of five books in early 2018, then after that three finalists. These “three finalists and their translators will be invited to London to participate in an awards ceremony and discussion at EBRD headquarters in April 2018 and an event at The London Book Fair.”

Chair Rosie Goldsmith, in the prepared statement:

Europe has always been central to my life and work. Discovering and sharing its many languages and literatures is a personal joy and mission. With the EBRD Literature Prize, the first such prize in the UK, we have an unrivalled opportunity to discover and share the best European literature in English translation – and to move beyond, to literature from Central Asia and Northern Africa. This prize could not come at a better time for the UK and the EBRD countries of operations. I am incredibly proud to be the first chair of judges for this first ever EBRD Literature Prize.

Of the 37 countries where EBRD operates, four are Arab-majority: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. Eligible works can be written originally in Arabic, but also in a country’s minority languages, such as Tamazight.

Submissions must be made by UK-based publishers “for books translated for the first time in the period between 1 October 2016 and 30 September 2017.”

 

The deadline for submission is 31 October 2017. Find out more about how to submit at the EBRD website.