Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards
Bringing quality translated fiction to the English-speaking world
The Society for the Furtherance & Study of Fantasy & Science Fiction (SF3), the parent non-profit corporation of Wiscon, has granted the SF&F Translation Awards $2000 to help fund future awards. We here at the SF&F Translation Awards are very grateful for this grant, and thank Wiscon and SF3 for their kind assistance.
We would also like to thank Nalo Hopkinson who handled the grant application for us.
China Daily has done an extensive article (in English) about Ken Liu, including mention of our awards. You can read it here.
Here are the results for the 2012 awards (for works published in 2011). The jury has elected to give two Honorable Mentions in each category.
Long Form Winner
Zero by Huang Fan, translated from the Chinese by John Balcom (Columbia University Press)
Long Form Honorable Mentions
Good Luck, Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi, translated from the Japanese by Neil Nadelman (Haikasoru)
Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves (Little, Brown & Company)
Short Form Winner
“The Fish of Lijiang” by Chen Qiufan, translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld #59, August 2011)
Short Form Honorable Mentions
“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated from the Dutch by Laura Vroomen (PS Publishing)
“The Green Jacket” by Gudrun Östergaard, translated from the Danish by the author and Lea Thume (Sky City: New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors, Carl-Eddy Skovgaard ed., Science Fiction Cirklen)
The winners were announced today at Finncon 2012, held in Tampere, Finland. The awards were announced by jury member Irma Hirsjärvi and ARESFFT Board member Cheryl Morgan.
The winning authors and their translators will each receive an inscribed plaque and a cash prize of $350. Authors and translators of the honorable mentions will receive certificates.
Jury chair Dale Knickerbocker said, “The jury would like to thank all who nominated works, and compliment both the authors and translators for the fine quality of this year’s submissions. While both the winner and honorable mentions in the long fiction category had their supporters, we ultimately chose Huang Fan’s novella Zero (translated from the Chinese by John Balcom) as the winner. The author skillfully weaves elements from the masterpieces of dystopian fiction into his own very unique text, and the translator successfully communicates the work’s stark, frightening nature. Zero‘s surprise denouement takes Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle a step further, wedding it with a touch of Asimov’s The Gods Themselves.”
“This year’s winner in the short fiction category, Chen Qiufan’s “The Fish of Lijiang” (translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu) was described by our judges as “brilliant,” “original,” and “a lovely and devastating story, beautifully written and translated.” It presents an interesting take on mental illness and wellness, work, and future technologies. In the tradition of the best SF, it offers a convincing extrapolation of the economic and consequent social changes that China has undergone in the past 30 years.”
ARESFFT President Professor Gary K. Wolfe added: “I’m delighted that the hard work of our distinguished jurors has resulted in such an impressive list of winners and nominees, and–equally important–that the international science fiction and fantasy community has taken this award to heart in terms of supplying nominees and suggestions for nominees. Congratulations not only to the winning authors and translators, but to everyone who has helped make these awards a viable and invaluable project.”
The money for the prize fund was obtained primarily through a 2011 fund-raising event for which prizes were kindly donated by George R.R. Martin, China Miéville, Cory Doctorow, Lauren Beukes, Ken MacLeod, Paul Cornell, Adam Roberts, Elizabeth Bear, Hal Duncan, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Peter F. Hamilton, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Nalo Hopkinson, Juliet E. McKenna, Aliette de Bodard, Nicola Griffith, Kelley Eskridge, Twelfth Planet Press, Deborah Kalin, Baen Books, Small Beer Press, Lethe Press, Aeon Press, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Kari Sperring, Helen Lowe, Rob Latham and Cheryl Morgan.
The jury for the awards was Dale Knickerbocker (Chair); Kari Maund, Abhijit Gupta, Hiroko Chiba, Stefan Ekman, Ekaterina Sedia, Felice Beneduce & Irma Hirsjärvi.
We are pleased to report that a number of the short fiction finalists for our awards are being made available online. Currently you can find the following stories:
“The Fish of Lijiang” by Chen Qiufan, translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld #59, August 2011)
“Paradiso” by Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin (Liquid Imagination #9, Summer 2011)
“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated from the Dutch by Laura Vroomen (PS Publishing)
“The Short Arm of History” by Kenneth Krabat, translated from the Danish by Niels Dalgaard (Sky City: New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors, Carl-Eddy Skovgaard ed., Science Fiction Cirklen)
“The Green Jacket” by Gudrun Östergaard, translated from the Danish by the author and Lea Thume (Sky City: New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors, Carl-Eddy Skovgaard ed., Science Fiction Cirklen)
Out thanks to the various publishers who have made these stories available. We are in discussions with Comma Press and PIASA Books regarding the other two stories and hope to have good news soon.
We have been contacted by Gudrun Östergaard to let us know that she received invaluable assistance in translating her story, “The Green Jacket”, from Danish translator Lea Thume. At Gudrun’s request we have updated the nominee lists to add Lea’s name.
We are delighted to announce the finalists for the 2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards (for works published in 2011). There are two categories: Long Form and Short Form.
Long Form
Good Luck, Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi, translated from the Japanese by Neil Nadelman (Haikasoru)
Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Towfik, translated from the Arabic by Chip Rossetti (Bloomsbury Qatar)
The Dragon Arcana by Pierre Pevel, translated from the French by Tom Clegg (Gollancz)
Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves (Little, Brown & Company)
Zero by Huang Fan, translated from the Chinese by John Balcom (Columbia University Press)
Short Form
“The Fish of Lijiang” by Chen Qiufan, translated from the Chinese by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld #59, August 2011)
“Spellmaker” by Andrzej Sapkowski, translated from the Polish by Michael Kandel (A Polish Book of Monsters, Michael Kandel, PIASA Books)
“Paradiso” by Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud, translated from the French by Edward Gauvin (Liquid Imagination #9, Summer 2011)
“The Boy Who Cast No Shadow” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, translated from the Dutch by Laura Vroomen (PS Publishing)
“The Short Arm of History” by Kenneth Krabat, translated from the Danish by Niels Dalgaard (Sky City: New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors, Carl-Eddy Skovgaard ed., Science Fiction Cirklen)
“The Green Jacket” by Gudrun Östergaard, translated from the Danish by the author and Lea Thume (Sky City: New Science Fiction Stories by Danish Authors, Carl-Eddy Skovgaard ed., Science Fiction Cirklen)
“Stanlemian” by Wojciech Orliński, translated from the Polish by Danusia Stok (Lemistry, Comma Press)
The nominees were announced at Åcon 5, a joint Finnish-Swedish convention, over the weekend May 19-20. The announcement was read by Guest of Honor, Catherynne M. Valente.
The winning works will be announced at the 2012 Finncon on the weekend of July 21-22. Each winning author and translator will receive a cash prize of US$350. ARESFFT Board member Cheryl Morgan and jury member Irma Hirsjärvi will be present to make the announcement.
ARESFFT President Professor Gary K. Wolfe said: “I think this list proves that once you start looking for it, the diversity and quality of translated science fiction and fantasy are considerably greater than most of us had suspected, and I hope the nominations list calls attention to works too often overlooked by the usual awards processes.”
The money for the prize fund was obtained primarily through a 2011 fund-raising event for which prizes were kindly donated by George R.R. Martin, China Miéville, Cory Doctorow, Lauren Beukes, Ken MacLeod, Paul Cornell, Adam Roberts, Elizabeth Bear, Hal Duncan, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Peter F. Hamilton, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, Nalo Hopkinson, Juliet E. McKenna, Aliette de Bodard, Nicola Griffith, Kelley Eskridge, Twelfth Planet Press, Deborah Kalin, Baen Books, Small Beer Press, Lethe Press, Aeon Press, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Kari Sperring, Helen Lowe, Rob Latham and Cheryl Morgan.
The jury for the awards was Dale Knickerbocker (Chair); Kari Maund, Abhijit Gupta, Hiroko Chiba, Stefan Ekman, Ekaterina Sedia, Felice Beneduce & Irma Hirsjärvi.
Thanks to a Japanese follower on Twitter we have been alerted to Death Sentences, a novel by Kawamata Chiaki, translated by Thomas Lamarre and Kazuko Y. Behrens. and published by the University of Minnesota. There’s a review in Publishers Weekly. The book was originally published in 1984, but has only just found its way into English. Given that it features a cult devoted to potentially deadly poetry, we are definitely interested. For more about the author, see the SF Encyclopedia.
Hugo Award nominated writer, Ken Liu, is also a keen translator of Chinese fiction. His latest project is “Taking Care of God” by the popular Chinese science fiction writer, Liu Cixin. You can read it in issue #2 of the free ebook magazine, Pathlight.
As you will have noticed, if you clicked through, that issue of Pathlight was issued in conjunction with China being the Market Focus for this year’s London Book Fair. One of the events of the fair saw John Clute and Jonathan Clements talk about Chinese science fiction. Liu Cixin was mentioned, as was Tibetan writer, Ah Lai.
Our fundraiser is now over. We need to check through the accounting as money has come in from a variety of sources, but the provisional total is $2001.65. Thank you ever so much. We will be in touch with the prize draw winners in the next week or so.
Here’s a final update on the fund raiser before it comes to an end at midnight tomorrow (Feb. 29th). We have currently raised $1,474.65. That’s a bit down on last year, so if we can get an extra $300 before the deadline we’d be very pleased. If we make it to $2000, which was our goal, we’ll be delighted.
As of now we have 28 prizes and 45 donors, so your chance of winning a prize is still better than 50:50. The full list of prizes is as follows:
Everyone who donates money will go into a draw for one of those prizes. The full rules of the draw are available here.
If you are a new visitor, more information about our organization can be found here; and more information about the awards is here.
To donate, simply use this PayPal button. You are able pay with a credit card.