The Prix des Phares du Nord has been awarded in Paris yesterday to Bertrand Abraham for his French translation of Gerard Reve’s Op weg naar het einde (‘On the Way to the End’, (En route vers la fin, Paris: Phébus, 2010) The jury consisted of Danielle Bourgois, Anita Concas and Margot Dijkgraaf.
The Prix des Phares du Nord is a bi-annual award for the best French translation of an important Dutch-language work. The prize is offered by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Flemish Literature Fund. As guest of honour at the Salon du Livre in Paris in 2003 the two bodies presented themselves, literally, under the name of 'The Beacons of the North'. The award includes a prize of € 5,000. The first winner, in 2005, was Philippe Noble, the second, in 2007, Annie Kroon and the third, in 2009, Anita Concas.
Bertrand Abraham (1948) lectures in French literature and has been a literary translator from Dutch to French since 2001. He studied under Roland Barthes, for example, and has published articles in various linguistic magazines and on the web. In addition to the Gerard Reve title he has translated works by Gerbrand Bakker, Renate Dorrestein, Douwe Draaisma, Maarten 't Hart, Frans Kellendonk and Geert Mak, amongst others.
In the translation database (see below) you can find an overview of Bertrand Abraham's translations.
Further information:
- Dutch Foundation for Literature, Peter Bergsma (Amsterdam Translators' House), tel.: +31 (0)6 22 56 56 89, e-mail:[email protected], websites: www.letterenfonds.nl, www.vertalershuis.nl
- Flemish Literature Fund, Greet Ramael, tel.: +32 (0)3 270 31 61, e-mail: greet.ramael@vfl.be, website: www.vfl.be
- Overview of Bertrand Abraham's translations
