Call for Submissions: 2015 Susanna Roth translation competition

The Literary Section of the Arts Institute is organising an international translation competition for young translators, in collaboration with Czech Centres.

Contests

navrat krale sumavy obalka

The competition is for beginner translators up to 40 years of age, whose task is to translate a piece of contemporary Czech prose. Contestants will translate a self-contained extract (max. 15 standard pages) from a book published in 2013/2014 chosen by a jury. Translations which have already been published cannot be entered for the competition. One winner will be selected from each country by a local jury.This year, an expert committee consisting of representatives of the Arts Institute, Czech Ministry of Culture, Větrné mlýny publishing house, Czech Book Award and Czech Centres selected David Jan Žák’s Návrat krále Šumavy (Labyrint, 2013), a biographical novel about the ‘elusive smuggler’, Josef Hasil.

The Czech Centres participating in the project are in Budapest, Bucharest, The Hague, Kiev, London, Madrid, Moscow, Sofia, Seoul, Warsaw and Vienna (only for Switzerland!) and the participating Czech embassies are in Baku, Budapest, Helsinki, Cairo, Minsk, Riga and Zagreb.

The competition is named after renowned Swiss bohemist and translator, Susanna Roth (1950–1997), who contributed significantly to the promotion of contemporary Czech literature abroad.

Prize

A stay in the Czech Republic, which will include attending the annual Bohemistics Seminar and a translation workshop.

Entry conditions

Contestants must be citizens or permanent residents in one of the participating countries below the age of 40 and cannot have published a book translation in the language of the given country.

Task

Translation of an extract from D.J. Žák’s Návrat krále Šumavy (from the chapter ‘Agent-chodec’, pp. 169-184). Contestants will be sent a copy of the extract upon request.

Dates

Deadline for translation submissions: 31 January 2015

Publication of results: 31 March 2015

Winners’ stay in the Czech Republic: July 2015

Contestants are to submit their entry electronically by 31 January 2015 to the e-mail address of the appropriate Czech Centre or embassy. The email contacts can be found on the Czech Centre or Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs websites.

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