Projects by Hassan Blasim, Lamia Ziadé, and the ‘Egypt + 100’ Collection Win PEN Translates Awards

AUGUST 6, 2022 — On Thursday, English PEN announced the record-high 21 books awarded 2022 PEN Translates prizes, which span 19 countries and 18 languages. They include Hassan Blasim’s The Clock and the Guest, to be translated by Jonathan Wright, Lamia Ziadé’s My Very Great Arab Melancholy, to be translated by Emma Ramadan, and the Egypt + 100 collection from Comma Press, set to include work by Mansoura Ez Eldin, Ahmed El-Fakhrany, and other acclaimed Egyptian authors.

The complete list of PEN Translates awardees:

  • The Summer You Weren’t There by Petar Andonovski, translated from the Macedonian by Christina E Kramer (Parthian Books). Country of origin: North Macedonia.
  • The Clock and the Guest by Hassan Blasim, translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Comma Press). Country of origin: Finland.
  • Magnification Forty by Tsvetanka Elenkova, translated from the Bulgarian by Jonathan Dunne (Shearsman Books). Country of origin: Bulgaria.
  • Me and the Robbersons: Bandit Karaoke by Siri Kolu, translated from the Finnish by Ruth Urbom (Little Tiger Press). Country of origin: Finland.
  • Exile by Phu Kradart, translated from the Isaan dialect of Thai by Ram Prasansak(Tilted Axis Press). Country of origin: Thailand.
  • The Memory of Air by Caroline Lamarche, translated from the French by Katherine Gregor (Héloïse Press). Country of origin: Belgium.
  • Wild Desire by Pedro Lemebel, translated from the Spanish by Gwendolyn Harper(Pushkin Press). Country of origin: Chile.
  • Ravshan’s Real Stories by lya Leutin, translated from the Russian by Anna Aslanyan(Paper + Ink). Country of origin: Russia.
  • The Heart Sutra by Yan Lianke, translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas (Chatto & Windus). Country of origin: China.
  • Like a Prisoner: Stories of Endurance by Fatos Lubonja, translated from the Albanian by John Hodgson (Istros Books). Country of origin: Albania.
  • You, Bleeding Childhood by Michele Mari, translated from the Italian by Brian Robert Moore (And Other Stories). Country of origin: Italy.
  • Centroeuropa by Vicente Luis Mora, translated from the Spanish by Rahul Bery(Peninsula Press). Country of origin: Spain.
  • Tchanaze by Carlos Paradona Rufino Roque, translated from the Portuguese by Sandra Tamale and Jethro Soutar (Dedalus Africa). Country of origin: Mozambique.
  • Star 111 by Lutz Seiler, translated from the German by Tess Lewis (And Other Stories). Country of origin: Germany.
  • Balam and Lluvia’s House by Julio Serrano Echeverría, translated from the Spanish by Lawrence Schimel (The Emma Press). Country of origin: Guatemala.
  • Brothers by Jackie Thomae, translated from the German by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp(DAS Editions). Country of origin: Germany.
  • Barcode by Krisztina Tóth, translated from the Hungarian by Peter Sherwood(Jantar Publishing Ltd). Country of origin: Hungary.
  • Retrospective by Juan Gabriel Vasquez, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (MacLehose Press). Country of origin: Colombia.
  • My Very Great Arab Melancholy by Lamia Ziadé, translated from the French by Emma Ramadan (Pluto Press). Country of origin: France.
  • Egypt + 100: Stories from a Century After the Revolution, translated from the Arabic (Comma Press). Country of origin: Egypt.
  • Take Six: Six Balkan Women Writers, translated from the Macedonian, Slovenian, Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrin by Will Firth and Olivia Hellewell (Dedalus). Countries of origin: North Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.