The Dutch Foundation for Literature’s Prizes 2011 for the Translator as Cultural Intermediary have been awarded to Vincent Hunink (Latin - Dutch), Bartho Kriek (English - Dutch) and Claudia Di Palermo (Dutch - Italian). These prizes are intended to emphasize their outstanding efforts on behalf of literature as well as the quality of their oeuvre as translators. The three winners each receive a sum of €10,000 to spend as they choose. The prizes were presented during the ‘Literaire Vertaaldagen’ this weekend in Amsterdam.

Pieter Steinz, currently editor-in-chief of the weekly books section of NRC Handelsblad, has been appointed director of the Dutch Foundation for Literature as of 1 March 2012. He succeeds Henk Pröpper, who recently left to become director/publisher at De Bezige Bij.

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 English translation of Toon Tellegen’s poem sequence Raafvogels has gained the Popescu Prize - a biennial prize awarded by the illustrious British Poetry Society for a European volume of poetry recently translated into the English language. The prize of £1,500 (just over €1,750) is awarded to the translator Judith Wilkinson.

As of 1 December this year, Henk Pröpper will leave the Dutch Foundation for Literature to join WPG Publishers as director/publisher at De Bezige Bij. Pröpper (b. 1958) spent a total of more than eight years as director of the Dutch Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature (NLPVF) and then, after the fusion between that organization and the Fonds voor de Letteren (FvdL), of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.

The novel Drie sterke vrouwen by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jeanne Holierhoek, has been selected as the winner of the European Literature Prize. The prize goes to both the author and the translator of the best European novel to appear in Dutch translation in 2010. The author will receive the sum of €10,000, the translator € 2,500. This a new prize, awarded this year for the first time.

As of 1 December this year, Henk Pröpper will leave the Dutch Foundation for Literature to join WPG Publishers as director/publisher at De Bezige Bij. Pröpper (b. 1958) spent a total of more than eight years as director of the Dutch Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature (NLPVF) and then, after the fusion between that organization and the Fonds voor de Letteren (FvdL), of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.