ANTONIA LLOYD-JONES wins 2009 FOUND IN TRANSLATION Award

This year’s award will go to Antonia Lloyd-Jones, for her translation of Pawel Huelle’s book The Last Supper (Serpent’s Tail, London, 2008), a novel that raises fundamental questions about the nature of belief in modern society. Antonia Lloyd-Jones will receive the prize from the hands of Pawel Huelle himself during the European Literature Night in the British Library on May 13.

Antonia Lloyd-Jones is one of the finest translators of Polish literature into English. Born in 1962, she read Russian and Ancient Greek at Oxford. Her published translations from Polish include novels by Pawel Huelle and Olga Tokarczuk, short stories by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, and non-fiction, most recently by Ryszard Kapuscinski and Wojciech Tochman. Her translations of a selection of poems by Tadeusz Dabrowski is forthcoming with Zephyr Press.

The European Literature Night in London is one of many events that will take place simultaneously across European capitals on May 13 to celebrate European literature. In London, emerging and established writers from seven countries, including Pawel Huelle, will read from their books and engage in conversation.

The Found in Translation Award, established in 2007 by the Polish Book Institute in Krakow, the Polish Cultural Institute in London, the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, and the W.A.B. Publishers in Warsaw, is given annually for the best translation of a work of Polish literature into English that was published as a book in the preceding year. The first Found in Translation Award, in 2008, was given to Bill Johnston for his translation of New Poems by Tadeusz Rozewicz (Archipelago Books, New York, 2007).

The Award consists of a three-month residency in Krakow, with lodging, a monthly stipend, roundtrip airfare, and a financial award of 10,000 zloties (ca $3,000). The laureate is announced during the Award ceremony, which is organized each year in the laureate’s country of origin.

Candidates for the Award can be nominated by private persons as well as institutions in Poland and abroad. Nominations are to be sent with the subject-heading FOUND IN TRANSLATION to: The Polish Book Institute, 31-011 Kraków, ul. Szczepańska 1, Poland, e-mail: biuro@instytutksiazki.pl

Award Ceremony took place in European Literature Night British Library, London, U.K. on May 13, 2009.