Two of the inaugural six winning projects were books in Arabic: Ireme by Stella Gaitano, with a winning sample translation by Mayada Ibrahim and Najlaa Eltom; and Playing with Soldiers by Tariq Asrawi, with a winning sample translation by Anam Zafar.
English PEN and the Booker Prize Foundation today announced the twelve books — and thirteen translators — shortlisted for the inaugural round of PEN Presents x International Booker Prize, a grant program “launched to support translators from the Global Majority.”
“I had no expectations concerning the hiring process; it was a minor task, and there was much else to do during the two short weeks. However, we were flooded with job applications, and what was supposed to be a minor task transformed into a moment encapsulating a history of violence, war, and the complexities of social injustice that the Nubian mountains have suffered throughout centuries of exploitation.”
