Translation Award Launched by Turkish and German Governments

A new translation award has been createdas the Tarabya Translation Prize. The honour will
between two governments with the aim tobe accompanied by a cash award of 7500 Euros
promote literary translations between both(main prize) that is jointly sponsored by the
countries. German Federal Foreign Ministry and theMinistry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of
Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic ofTurkey and the German Federal Foreign Ministry.
Turkey hope that this new award will increase theFurthermore, the Robert Bosch Foundation is also
numbers of literary translations from German tosponsoring an additional cash prize of 5,000 Euros
Turkish and Turkish to German.(the newcomer achievement prize) to the most
Although there are many other internationalpromising literary translator for that year.
translation awards, those awards are usually givenThe organisers have said that the inaugural joint
by English speaking countries such as the USAaward ceremony is due to take place at the
and United Kingdom to promote literary translationhistorical summer residence of the German
into the English language. The German-Turkishambassador in Tarabya, Istanbul on 3rd of
award is a unique collaboration between the twoNovember 2010.
countries and it will be awarded to its winner forCriteria for submission to the awards
the first time in fall 2010.Both the main and newcomer winners will be
The organisers said that the award is given asevaluated for the outstanding semantic and
part of the German Ernst Reuter Initiative forstylistic translation of the source literature. Some
Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding and it willfurther criterions that the judges will look at are
be handed out every year. They hope that thethe significance of the translation work within the
award will help to encourage the contributionliterary context of Turkey and its relevance for
made to the cultural and intellectual relationsintercultural understanding.
through literary translation and also to recogniseThe Tarabya Translation Prize will be considered
more literary translation efforts.for a wide variety of literary translation works,
The joint award project involves variouswhile the newcomer achievement award will only
organisations such as the Istanbul Goethe Institut,be given to those who just started their
the S. Fischer Stiftung, German Federal Foreignprofessional career as a literary translator.
Ministry, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism ofEvery submission must be accompanied by the
the Republic of Turkey and the Robert Boschtranslator's resume, the list of published
Foundation.translations, a compilation of passages of 10-15
For those who are interested in taking part, thepages each in the original language and translations
award is set out to recognize the top literaryfrom 2-3 selected works published in the
works translated from German to Turkish as welltranslation.
as from Turkish to German. The award is dubbed