The shortlist for the European Literature Prize 2019 has been announced. Out of a longlist of twenty translated titles the jury has selected five from which the winner will be chosen. The prize will be presented 3 November 2019, during the Crossing Border festival in The Hague.
The five shortlisted titles are (in alphabetical order by author’s name):
- Arno Geiger Onder de Drachenwand, translated from German by Wil Hansen (De Bezige Bij)
- Geir Gulliksen Het verhaal van een huwelijk, translated from Norwegian by Geri de Boer (Ambo Anthos)
- Marek Šindelka Materiaalmoeheid, translated from Czech by Edgar de Bruin (Das Mag)
- Ali Smith Winter, translated from English by Karina van Santen and Martine Vosmaer (Prometheus)
- Éric Vuillard De orde van de dag, translated from French by Liesbeth van Nes (Meulenhoff)
Award ceremony
The European Literature Prize will be presented on November the 3rd 2019 for the ninth time, recognizing the best novel translated last year from a European language into Dutch. Both the author and the translator of the chosen title are awarded, with the author receiving the sum of € 10,000 and the translator € 5,000.
Jury
A jury of twelve (independent) bookstores selected the longlist. The shortlist and the winner are chosen by a jury drawn from the world of literature and literary translation. The jury members are:
- Abdelkader Benali (chair), author and journalist
- Thomas Heerma van Voss, author and critic for weekly De Groene Amsterdammer
- Demir Lugonja, on behalf of Van Piere bookstore in Eindhoven
- Janna Navis, on behalf of Dominicanen bookstore in Maastricht
- Paula Stevens, literary translator Norwegian, laureate European Literature Prize 2018
The European Literature Prize is an initiative of the Academic-Cultural Centre Spui25, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, the weekly De Groene Amsterdammer and Athenaeum Boekhandel.
Previous editions
Last year the European Literature Prize was awarded to Johan Harstad and translators Edith Koenders and Paula Stevens for Max, Mischa & het Tet-offensief (Max, Misch & Tetoffensiven). Previous winners are Max Porter and translator Saskia van der Lingen for Verdriet is het ding met veren (Grief Is the Thing with Feathers), Sandro Veronesi and translator Rob Gerritsen for Zeldzame aarden (Terre rare), Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Elly Schippers for Een handvol sneeuw (Aller Tage Abend), Jérôme Ferrari and translators Jan Pieter van der Sterre and Reintje Ghoos for De preek over de val van Rome (Le sermon sur la chûte de Rome), Emmanuel Carrère and translators Katelijne De Vuyst and Katrien Vandenberghe for Limonov (Limonov), Julian Barnes and translator Ronald Vlek for Alsof het voorbij is (The Sense of an Ending), and Marie Ndiaye and translator Jeanne Holierhoek for Drie sterke vrouwen (Trois femmes puissantes).
Links
- europeseliteratuurprijs.nl (Dutch)
- Crossing Border Festival (English and Dutch)
