Thursday 25 February 2010

German Embassy Translation Prize to Samuel Pakucs Willcocks

My informers had informed me already, but I just spent ten minutes digging around obscure websites to get the official version:

The Germanist Samuel Pakucs Willcocks has won the first ever German Embassy Translation Prize for his version of an extract from the novel Du bist zu schnell by Zoran Drvenkar. The lucky guy gets a month on the shores of the Wannsee at the LCB, 1000 euro spending money and a trip to the Leipzig Book Fair. Which is handy, because he's researching in a silent Berlin library as we speak. You can download his winning translation via that link above, by the way. Runner-up is my friend Jamie Lee Searle, who gets a big pat on the back and her name mentioned on the internet. Congratulations to both of you!

I like the idea of this prize a great deal, even if I'm not eligible to enter myself. Anyone can have a shot at it, provided they live in the UK. Let's hope it lures many more budding translators out of the woodwork in the years to come.

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