By Siobhan O’Leary
Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt has announced the shortlist for its second annual “International Literature Prize” for books that have been translated into German. The seven-member jury — which includes Gregor Dotzauer (literary critic for Der Tagesspiegel), Katharina Narbutoviç (head of the DAAD’s Berlin artists program) and Peter Ripken (chairman of ICORN – International Cities of Refuge Network), made its selection from a pool of 133 submissions from 50 countries, representing 25 languages.
The titles still in the running (all originally published in English or French) are:
Glissant, Édouard: Das magnetische Land
Verlag Das Wunderhorn, 2010,
Translated from French by Beate Thill (La terre magnétique, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 2007)
Khadra, Yasmina: Die Schuld des Tages an die Nacht
Ullstein Buchverlage, 2010
Translated from French by Regina Keil-Sagawe (Ce que le jour doit à la nuit, Editions Julliard, Paris, 2008)
Li, Yiyun: Die Sterblichen
Carl Hanser Verlag, 2009
Translated from English (US) by Anette Grube (The Vagrants, Random House, New York, 2009)
Mandanipur, Shahriar: Eine iranische Liebesgeschichte zensieren
Unionsverlag, 2010
Written in Farsi (unpublished) and translated from English by Ursula Ballin (Censoring an Iranian Love Story, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 2009)
Mengestu, Dinaw: Die Melodie der Luft
Ullstein Buchverlag, 2010
Translated from English (US) by Volker Oldenburg (How to read the air, Riverhead, New York, 2010)
Mueenuddin, Daniyal: Andere Räume, andere Träume
Suhrkamp/Insel, 2010
Translated from English (US) by Brigitte Heinrich (In other rooms, other wonders, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2009)
N’Diaye, Marie: Drei starke Frauen
Suhrkamp Verlag 2010
Translated from French by Claudia Kalscheuer (Trois Femmes Puissantes, Éditions Gallimard, 2009)
The prizes will be awarded by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Stiftung Elementarteilchen on September 29th. The 35,000 euro prize will be split between the author (25,000 euros) and the translator (10,000 euros). Last year’s winner was Daniel Alarcón (along with translator Friederike Meltendorf) for the book Lost City Radio (Wagenbach Verlag).