Best Translated Book Award finalists announced

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The longlist for the Best Translated Book Awards was announced Tuesday. Organized by the publisher Three Percent at the University of Rochester, the annual Best Translated Book Awards recognize the best works of fiction published in English but originally written another language.

Founded in 2007, the BTBA is notable in recognizing both author and translator in tandem. The 2012 BTBA longlist features authors from 14 countries writing in 12 languages. The author of the original work will receive $5,000 and its translator $5,000.

The BTBA will also recognize works of poetry in translation; the poetry finalists will be announced later this spring, on April 10, when the fiction shortlist is announced. The BTBA winners will be announced during the PEN World Voices Festival, which takes place April 30-May 6 in New York.

The fiction longlist is after the jump.

The longlist for the 2012 Best Translated Book Awards: ‘Leeches’ by David Albahari, translated from the Serbian by Ellen Elias-Bursać (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

‘My Two Worlds’ by Sergio Chejfec, translated from the Spanish by Margaret B. Carson (Open Letter)

‘Demolishing Nisard’ by Eric Chevillard, translated from the French by Jordan Stump (Dalkey Archive Press)

‘Private Property’ by Paule Constant, translated from the French by Margot Miller and France Grenaudier-Klijn (University of Nebraska Press)

‘Lightning’ by Jean Echenoz, translated from the French by Linda Coverdale (New Press)

‘Zone’ by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell (Open Letter)

‘Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion?’ by Johan Harstad, translated from the Norwegian by Deborah Dawkin (Seven Stories)

‘Upstaged’ by Jacques Jouet, translated from the French by Leland de la Durantaye (Dalkey Archive Press)

‘Fiasco’ by Imre Kertész, translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson (Melville House)

‘Montecore’ by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Knopf)

‘Kornél Esti’ by Dezső Kosztolányi, translated from the Hungarian by Bernard Adams (New Directions)

‘I Am a Japanese Writer’ by Dany Laferrière, translated from the French by David Homel (Douglas & MacIntyre)

‘Suicide’ by Edouard Levé, translated from the French by Jan Steyn (Dalkey Archive Press)

‘New Finnish Grammar’ by Diego Marani, translated from the Italian by Judith Landry (Dedalus)

‘Purgatory’ by Tomás Eloy Martínez, translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne (Bloomsbury)

‘Stone Upon Stone’ by Wiesław Myśliwski, translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Archipelago Books)

‘Scenes from Village Life’ by Amos Oz, translated from the Hebrew by Nicholas de Lange (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

‘The Shadow-Boxing Woman’ by Inka Parei, translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire (Seagull Books)

‘Funeral for a Dog’ by Thomas Pletzinger, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin (W.W. Norton)

‘Scars’ by Juan José Saer, translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph (Open Letter)

‘Kafka’s Leopards’ by Moacyr Scliar, translated from the Portuguese by Thomas O. Beebee (Texas Tech University Pres)

‘Seven Years’ by Peter Stamm, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann (Other Press)

‘The Truth about Marie’ by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, translated from the French by Matthew B. Smith (Dalkey Archive Press)

‘In Red’ by Magdalena Tulli, translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston (Archipelago Books)

‘Never Any End to Paris’ by Enrique Vila-Matas, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (New Directions)

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-- Carolyn Kellogg