International Literature Award Explained

International Literature Award (German: Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt) is a German literary award for international prose translated into German for the first time.^[1] The prize has been awarded annually by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the foundation “Elementarteilchen” since 2009.^[1] Winning authors receive €20,000 and the translators €15,000.^[2] The award has compared as the German near-equivalent of the Best Translated Book Award or Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.^[2] In 2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the award was given to all six shortlisted titles, with the prize money divided equally.^[3]

Winners and shortlists

Blue Ribbon = winner

2009

• Daniel Alarcón, Lost City Radio (English, trans. Friederike Meltendorf)^{[4] [5]}
• Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, زوال کلنل (Farsi, trans. Bahman Nirumand)
• Rawi Hage, De Niro's Game (English, trans. Gregor Hens)
• Aleksandar Hemon, Lazarus (English, trans. Rudolf Hermstein)
• Martín Kohan, Dos veces junio (Spanish, trans. Peter Kultzen)
• Dinaw Mengestu, The beautiful Things that Heaven bears (English, trans. Volker Oldenburg)

2010

• Édouard Glissant, La terre magnétique: les errances de Rapa Nui, l'île de Pâques (French, trans. Beate Thill)
• Yasmina Khadra, Ce que le jour doit à la nuit (French, trans. Regina Keil-Sagawe)
• Yiyun Li, The Vagrants (English, trans. Anette Grube)
• Shahriar Mandanipour, Censoring an Iranian Love Story (English, trans. Ursula Ballin)
• Dinaw Mengestu, How to read the Air (English, trans. Volker Oldenburg)
• Daniyal Mueenuddin, In other Rooms, other Wonders (English, trans. Brigitte Heinrich)
• Marie NDiaye, Trois femmes puissantes (French, trans. Claudia Kalscheuer)^[6]

2011

• José Eduardo Agualusa, Barroco tropical (Portuguese, trans. Michael Kegler)
• Joanna Bator, Piaskowa góra (Polish, trans. Esther Kinsky)
• Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker (English, trans. Susann Urban)
• Mathias Énard, Zone (French, trans. Holger Fock and Sabine Müller)
• Elias Khoury, يالو (Arabic, trans. Leila Chamman)
• Mikhail Shishkin, Венерин Волос (Russian, trans. Andreas Tretner)^[7]

2012

• Jaume Cabré, Jo confesso (Catalan, trans. Kirsten Brandt and Petra Zickmann)
• Mircea Cărtărescu, Corpul (Romanian, trans. Gerhardt Csejka and Ferdinand Leopold)
• Nedim Gürsel, Allah’ιn Kιzlarι (Turkish, trans. Barbara Yurtdas)
• Tom McCarthy, C (English, trans. Bernhard Robben)
• Péter Nádas, Párhuzamos történetek (Hungarian, trans. Christina Viragh)
• Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife (English, trans. Bettina Abarbanell)

2013

• Andrei Bitov, Преподаватель симметрии (Russian, trans. Rosemarie Tietze)
• Teju Cole, Open City (English, trans. Christine Richter-Nilsson)^{[8] [9]}
• Lloyd Jones, Hand me down World (English, trans. Grete Osterwald)
• Valeria Luiselli, Los Ingrávidos (Spanish, trans. Dagmar Ploetz-Timm)
• Zakhar Prilepin, Санькя (Russian, trans. Erich Klein and Susanne Macht)
• Jean Rolin, Un chien mort après lui (French, trans. Holger Fock and Sabine Müller)

2014

• Zsófia Bán, Amikor még csak az állatok éltek (Hungarian, trans. Terézia Mora)
• Georgi Gospodinov, Физика на тъгата (Bulgarian, trans. Alexander Sitzmann)
• Mohsin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (English, trans. Eike Schönfeld)
• Bernardo Kucinski, K. (Portuguese, trans. Sarita Brandt)
• Dany Laferrière, L'énigme du retour (French, trans. Beate Thill)^[10]
• Madeleine Thien, Dogs at the Perimeter (English, trans. Almuth Carstens)

2015

• NoViolet Bulawayo, We Need New Names (English, trans. Miriam Mandelkow)
• Patrick Chamoiseau, L'empreinte à Crusoé (French, trans. Beate Thill)
• Daša Drndić, Sonnenschein (Croatian, trans. Brigitte Döbert and Blanka Stipetić)
• Gilbert Gatore, Le passé devant soi (French, trans. Katja Meintel)
• Amos Oz, הבשורה על-פי יהודה (Hebrew, trans. Mirjam Pressler) ^[11]
• Krisztina Tóth, Akvárium (Hungarian, trans. György Buda)

2016

• Johannes Anyuru, En storm kom från paradiset (Swedish, trans. Paul Berf)
• Joanna Bator, Ciemno, prawie noc (Polish, trans. Lisa Palmes)
• Alexander Ilitschewski, Перс (Russian, trans. Andreas Tretner)
• Valeria Luiselli, La historia de mis dientes (Spanish, trans. Dagmar Ploetz)
• Shumona Sinha, Assommons les pauvres! (French, trans. Lena Müller)^[12]
• Ivan Vladislavić, Double Negative (English, trans. Thomas Brückner)

2017

• Hamed Abboud, يصنع كعكة عيد (Arabic, trans. Larissa Bender)
• Alberto Barrera Tyszka, Patria o muerte (Spanish, trans. Matthias Strobel)
• Han Kang, 채식주의자 (Korean, trans. Ki-Hyang Lee)
• Amanda Lee Koe, Ministry of Moral Panic (English, trans. Zoë Beck)
• Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Tram 83 (French, trans. Katharina Meyer and Lena Müller) ^[13]
• Ziemowit Szczerek, Przyjdzie Mordor i nas zje, czyli Tajna historia Słowian (Polish, trans. Thomas Weiler)

2018

• Anuk Arudpragasam, The Story of a Brief Mariage (English, trans. Hannes Meyer)
• Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex (French, trans. Claudia Steinitz)
• Maxim Ossipow, Nach der Ewigkeit (trans. Birgit Veit)
• Ivana Sajko, Ljubavni roman (Croatian, trans. Alida Bremer)
• Éric Vuillard, L'ordre du jour (French, trans. Nicola Denis)
• Eliot Weinberger, The Ghosts of Birds (English, trans. Beatrice Faßbender)

2019

• Hélène Cixous, Homère est morte (French, trans. Claudia Simma)
• Zoltán Danyi, A dögeltakarító (Hungarian, trans. Terézia Mora)
• Ariana Harwicz, Mátate, amor (Spanish, trans. Dagmar Ploetz)
• Fernanda Melchor, Temporada de huracanes (Spanish, trans. Angelica Ammar)
• Gerald Murnane, Border Districts (English, trans. Rainer G. Schmidt)
• Yishai Sarid, מפלצת הזיכרון (Hebrew, trans. Ruth Achlama)

2020

All six shortlisted titles were given the award.^[3]

• Yevgenia Belorusets, Щасливі падіння (Ukrainian/Russian, trans. Claudia Dathe)
• Amir Hassan Cheheltan, محفل عاشقان ادب (Farsi, trans. Jutta Himmelreich)
• Angel Igov, Кротките (Bulgarian, trans. Andreas Tretner)
• James Noël, Belle Merveille (French, trans. Rike Bolte)
• Chigozie Obioma, An Orchestra of Minorities (English, trans. Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner)
• Isabel Waidner, Gaudy Bauble (English, trans. Ann Cotten)

2021

• Fatima Daas, La petite dernière (French, trans. Sina de Malafosse)
• Jonas Eika, Efter solen (Danish, trans. Ursel Allenstein)
• Fang Fang, 软埋 (Mandarin, trans. Michael Kahn-Ackermann)
• Ava Farmehri, Through the sad Wood our Corpses will hang (English, trans. Sonja Finck)
• Nastassja Martin, Croire aux fauves (French, trans. Claudia Kalscheuer)
• Jenny Offill, Weather (English, trans. Melanie Walz)

2022

• Can Xue, 新世纪爱情故事 (Mandarin, trans. Karin Betz)
• Aleksandar Hemon, My Parents: An Introduction / This Does Not Belong to You (English, trans. Henning Ahrens)
• Juhani Karila, Pienen hauen pyydystys (Finnish, trans. Maximilian Murmann)
• Cristina Morales, Lectura fácil (Spanish, trans. Friederike von Criegern)^[14]
• Adania Shibli, تفصيل ثانوي (Arabic, trans. Günther Orth)
• Andrea Tompa, Omertà. Hallgatások könyve (Hungarian, trans. Terézia Mora)

2023

• Don Mee Choi, DMZ Colony (English, trans. Uljana Wolf)
• Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Conjunto vacío (Spanish, trans. Birgit Weilguny)
• Cherie Jones, How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House (English, trans. Karen Gerwig)
• Péter Nádas, Rémtörténetek (Hungarian, trans. Heinrich Eisterer)
• Mariette Navarro, Ultramarins (French, trans. Sophie Beese)
• Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, La plus secrète mémoire des hommes (French, trans. Holger Fock and Sabine Müller)
• Maria Stepanova, Девушки без одежды (Russian, trans. Olga Radetzkaja)
• Eva Viežnaviec, Па што ідзеш, воўча? (Belarusian, trans. Tina Wünschmann)

Source: ^[15]

External links

• International Literature Award, official website.

Notes and References

1. http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/2011/ilp2011/projekt_detail_53764.php International Literature Award
2. Web site: Internationaler Literaturpreis – HKW . . May 29, 2014 . May 29, 2014.
3. Web site: Internationaler Literaturpreis 2020 . May 13, 2023 . HKW.de . . en.
4. Heredia . J . 2012 . The task of the translator: An interview with Daniel Alarcón . Latino Studies . 10 . 3. 395–409 . 10.1057/lst.2012.22 .
5. Web site: September 30, 2009 . Literaturpreis für Daniel Alarcón Internationaler Literaturpreis erstmalig vergeben . October 11, 2012 . Die Berliner Literaturkritik . de.
6. Web site: Internationaler Literaturpreis an Marie NDiaye . Boersenblatt . September 30, 2010 . October 11, 2012 . de.
7. Web site: Bekanntgabe Preisträger 2011 Internationaler Literaturpreis wird verliehen . Die Berliner Literaturkritik . de . Von Sophie Werner . June 15, 2011 . October 11, 2012 .
8. Web site: Silke Bartlick . May 2, 2013 . Germany's International Literature Award honors world's best books . May 31, 2013 . DW.
9. Web site: Aygül Cizmecioglu . May 31, 2013 . German literature prize for Teju Cole's debut NYC novel . May 31, 2013 . DW.
10. Web site: Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt 2014 . Haus der Kulturen der Welt . 2014 . June 23, 2014.
11. Web site: Amos Oz wins major German literature award . DeutscheWelle . Sabine Peschel . June 29, 2015 . June 30, 2015.
12. http://www.hkw.de/de/programm/projekte/2016/internationaler_literaturpreis_2016/shortlist_2016/shumona_sinha_lena_mueller_erschlagt_die_armen_2.php "Erschlagt die Armen!"
13. Web site: International Literature Aw goes to Fiston Mwanza Mujila's 'Tram 83' . DW . Sabine Peschel . June 20, 2017 . July 20, 2017.
14. Web site: June 22, 2022 . Internationaler Literaturpreis geht an Cristina Morales und Friederike von Criegern . August 16, 2022 . . de.
15. Web site: August 16, 2023 . Shortlist Internationaler Literaturpreis 2023 . August 17, 2023 . hkw.de . German.