Thursday 5 May 2011

Gutekunst Prize to Kári Driscoll

The Goethe Institut in New York announced the winner of the inaugural Gutekunst Translation Prize, which is one of a crop of new awards going to emerging translators. All the applicants translated a passage from Martin Mosebach's linguistically challenging novel Was davor geschah. And the winner is a graduate student by the name of Kári Driscoll, who is pictured looking young and attractive. I bet he sent in a fake photo, because everybody knows all translators are old and wizened.

They tell us: "The winning entry impressed the judges (Mark Anderson of Columbia University, Susan Bernofsky, scholar and translator, and Liesl Schillinger, book critic) for its flowing, eloquent prose, its admirable accuracy, and its inventive rendering of Mr. Mosebach's lyrical passages and natural imagery." You can download his translation behind the link, should you be so inclined. Mr. Driscoll gets $2500 and a trip to Chicago for the Helen and Kurt Wolff Symposium.

Speaking of which, I seem to have read on Facebook who's actually won the prestigious Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize this year, but I can't find confirmation anywhere at all. I'm very pleased though...

2 comments:

Kári said...

I assure you, madam, the photo is genuine!

kjd said...

I believe you, thousands wouldn't.