FOR THE BEST ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE

Read Russia invites publishers worldwide of Russian literature in English translation to submit newly published works for the 2015 READ RUSSIA PRIZE! 

The annual Read Russia English-language Prize is awarded in New York each May for works of Russian literature in English translation in the following categories:

• contemporary fiction written after 1990;
• 20th-century fiction written between 1900 and 1990;
• 19th-century fiction written between 1800 and 1900; and
• poetry (classic and contemporary).

The READ RUSSIA PRIZE is a cash award of up to $10,000, divided at the discretion of the prize jury between the original English-language publishing house and the translator(s) of the work. The winning publisher also receives the opportunity to have a complementary audiovisual book trailer produced for the winning work or for a new work of Russian literature in translation that it is publishing. 

How To Apply

All English-language translations of Russian literature published in English between January and December 2014 are eligible for submission.  Two print copies of the nominated English-language work and one print copy of the original Russian-language text should be sent to the READ RUSSIA PRIZE address below.  In addition, a digital copy of each of the English and Russian works should be sent to prizes@readrussia.org by December 31, 2014. 

All books nominated for the READ RUSSIA PRIZE for translations into English are automatically nominated for the international Read Russia Prize, awarded biannually in September in Moscow – during the biannual World Congress of Literary Translators – for the best translations of Russian literature into various world languages.  For information about the biannual Read Russia Prize, please visit the Institute of Translation online at: http://www.institutperevoda.ru

About the Read Russia English Prize Jury

The Read Russia English Prize Jury includes leading authors, translators, scholars, and teachers:    

Katherine Tiernan O’Connor is Professor Emerita of Russian and Comparative Literature in the Department of Modern Languages & Comparative Literature at Boston University.  She began her study of Russian at Yale Summer School, majored in Russian at Bryn Mawr, and received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for graduate study at Harvard, where she received an M.A. in Soviet Area Studies and a Ph.D. in Russian from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.  She was awarded an Honorary Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe College and a Metcalf Teaching award from Boston University, where she taught for 41 and served as Director of the Humanities Foundation from 1991 to 2008.  Along with Diana Lewis Burgin, she has co-translated Kornei Chukovsky’s Alexander Blok as Man and Poet (Ardis), Sergei Dovlatov’s The Invisible Book (Ardis), and Dovlatov’s story “Somebody’s Death” (The New Yorker, September 29, 1981). Their 1995 translation of Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita remains in print as a Vintage International paperback.  A scholar and critic of modern Russian literature, Katherine O’Connor has written about Pasternak (Boris Pasternak’s ‘My Sister-Life’: The Illusion of Narrative), Leskov, and Nabokov, among others, but Chekhov’s stories and letters have become her primary focus.  Her translations of “A Little Game” and “Agafya” are included in the 2014 Norton Critical Edition of Anton Chekhov’s Selected Stories.

Richard Lourie is a writer, translator, and filmmaker. He has translated more than 40 books from Russian and Polish into English - the work of Andrei Sakharov, Andrei Sinyavsky, and Vladimir Voinovich among them - and has published five nonfiction books related to Russia, including Sakharov: A Biography. His novels include A Hatred for Tulips, The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin, and First Loyalty, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Lourie writes a column for the Moscow Times and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Nation, and other publications. He has also written and co-produced documentary films about Andrei Sakharov and life in Russia.

 

Ronald Meyer is a translator and editor of Russian literature.  His translations include Dostoevsky’s The Gambler and Other Stories, Anna Akhmatova’s My Half-Century, and the stories of Anton Chekhov, as well as works by contemporary Russian writers like Julia Belomlinsky and Vadim Levental. He teaches a seminar on Russian literary translation at Columbia University, directs the master’s program in Russian translation there, and is a member of the Translation Committee of the PEN American Center.  Meyer earlier served as senior editor at Ardis Publishers, which specializes in Russian literature in both English translation and the original.  He is the co-editor Russian Literature of the 1920s: An Anthology.

 

Prize Sponsors

Read Russia (http://www.readrussia.org), founded in 2012, is a new initiative—based in Moscow, New York, and London—established to celebrate Russian literature and Russian book culture. Through innovative programs, projects, and events supporting the English-language translation and publication of Russian works, Read Russia provides international audiences with fresh opportunities to engage—in person, on screen, and online—with Russia’s literary leaders and heritage.

Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center

The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the institution of the Russian presidency and the development of civil society, democratic institutions, and the rule of law.

Institute of Translation

The Institute of Translation is a pioneering new project from twelve of Russia’s most prestigious cultural organizations designed to inspire excellence in literary translation from and into Russian and to consolidate Russia’s place at the heart of global culture. 

The Russian Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication

The Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication is the branch of the Russian government responsible for the development of the publishing industry and information resources and technologies in Russia. The FAPMC promotes Russian literature internationally and encourages stronger links between Russian and international publishers.

In addition to the READ RUSSIA PRIZE, Read Russia sponsors public readings, lectures, seminars, panel discussions, film screenings, and new media initiatives—including its regular New York Editors Banquet, where publishing professionals can learn more about literary and publishing trends in Russia proper.

Contacts:

Peter B. Kaufman
Read Russia, Inc. 
225 Duke Ellington Boulevard
New York, NY 10025
(212) 316-5494
prizes@readrussia.org

For Press:

press@readrussia.org
www.readrussia.org

Download the Read Russia Prize brochure