By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
US National Book Awards 2023 Longlist: Young People’s Literature
Second of Five Categories’ Longlists
Now here with the United States’ National Book Foundation‘s second-released 2023 longlist for translation. The foundation made its widely praised move to add this new category for work translated into English in 2018.
Publishers submitted a total 154 books for this category, up from 146 last year.
Shortlists, called finalists in National Book Awards terminology, are to be announced in all five categories on October 3, with winners named at the program’s annual fundraising gala in New York City on November 15.
The full schedule of this week’s annual volley of categories’ longlists:
- Wednesday (September 13): Young People’s Literature
- Later Wednesday: Translated Literature
- Thursday (September 14): Poetry
- Later Thursday: Nonfiction
- Friday (September 15): Fiction
The 10 works longlisted in the translation category were published originally in seven languages: Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Six titles previously have been recognized as longlisters or finalists for the National Book Award for Translated Literature: Khaled Khalifa and Leri Price were finalists in 2019 for Death Is Hard Work, and Price was a finalist again in 2021 for Samar Yzabek’s Planet of Clay; Fernanda Melchor and Sophie Hughes were longlisted in 2020 for Hurricane Season; and Pilar Quintana and Lisa Dillman were finalists in 2020 for The Bitch.
The 2023 Translated Literature Longlist
The jurors for the translation category this year are Geoffrey Brock, Arthur Malcolm Dixon, Cristina Rodriguez, T. Denean Sharpley Whiting, and Jeremy Tiang (chair).
The authors and translators on the list have been recognized by international prizes including the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation; the Biblioteca de Narrativa Prize; the Prix Goncourt; the Goncourt Prize, the International Booker Prize, the Otras Voces Otros Ámbitos Prize, the P.C. Hooft Prize; the PEN Translation Prize; and the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.
The 10 books longlisted here all appear to have their translators credited on their covers.
| Author | Title | Original Language | Translator | Publisher / Imprint |
| Juan Cárdenas | The Devil of the Provinces | Spanish | Lizzie Davis | Coffee House Press |
| Bora Chung | Cursed Bunny | Korean | Anton Hur | Hachette Book Group / Algonquin Books |
| David Diop | Beyond the Door of No Return | French | Sam Taylor | Macmillan Publishers / Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
| Jenny Erpenbeck | Karios | German | Michael Hofmann | New Directions |
| Stênio Gardel | The Words That Remain | Portuguese | Bruna Dantas Lobato | New Vessel Press |
| Khaled Khalifa | No One Prayed Over Their Graves | Arabic | Leri Price | Macmillan Publishers / Farrar, Straus, and Giroux |
| Fernanda Melchor | This Is Not Miami | Spanish | Sophie Hughes | New Directions |
| Pilar Quintana | Abyss | Spanish | Lisa Dillman | World Editions |
| Astrid Roemer | On a Woman’s Madness | Dutch | Lucy Scott | Two Lines Press |
| Mohamed Mbouger Sarr | The Most Secret Memory of Men | French | Lara Vergnaud | Other Press |
As always, the jury’s decisions are made independently of the National Book Foundation staff and board of directors and deliberations are strictly confidential.
More on the 2023 National Book Awards:
US National Book Foundation: Poet Rita Dove Wins the 2023 Medal for Distinguished Contribution
US National Book Foundation: Bookseller Paul Yamazaki Wins the 2023 Literarian Medal
More from Publishing Perspectives on the National Book Awards in the United States is here and more on the huge field of international book awards and prizes is here. More from us on translation and translators is here, more on international publishing rights is here, and more on the United States’ market is here.