The PEN Translation Prize (formerly known as the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize through 2008) is an annual award given by
PEN America
PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...
(formerly PEN American Center) to outstanding
translation
Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...
s into the
English language
English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...
. It has been presented annually by PEN America and the
Book of the Month Club
Book of the Month (founded 1926) is a United States subscription-based e-commerce service that offers a selection of five to seven new hardcover books each month to its members. Books are selected and endorsed by a panel of judges, and members ch ...
since 1963. It was the first award in the United States expressly for literary translators. A 1999 ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' article called it "the Academy Award of Translation", stating that the award is thus usually not given to younger translators.
The distinction comes with a cash prize of
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...
$3,000. Any book-length English translation published in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
during the year in question is eligible, irrespective of the residence or nationality of either the translator or the original author.
The award is separate from the similar
PEN Award for Poetry in Translation.
The PEN Translation Prize was called one of "the most prominent translation awards." The award is
one of many PEN awards sponsored by
International PEN
PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...
affiliates in over
145 PEN centres around the world. The PEN American Center awards have been characterized as being among the "major" American literary prizes.
Winners
See also
*
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
References
{{Reflist
External links
PEN Translation Prize
1963 establishments in the United States
Awards established in 1963
PEN America awards
Translation awards