Celebration of the Shortlist & Award Ceremony June 25, 2016
8th Internationaler Literaturpreis
Award for translated contemporary literatures
What literary transactions between authors, translators, readers and publishers characterize contemporary international storytelling? How does transnational authorship determine one’s grasp of the world and narrative mindset; what linguistic polyvalences have to be mastered by translations?
Narration and translation in an accelerated literary present:
The 2016 Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt goes to the Franco-Indian author Shumona Sinha and her translator Lena Müller for Erschlagt die Armen! translated from the French. “The diagnostic power of literature: The original novel was published in 2011 and is far more than a commentary on the current situation. The monolog of the first person narrator – an interpreter in a French asylum determining authority [...] unyieldingly demonstrates what happens when the truth does not fit into the given scheme. Lena Müller has powerfully conveyed Sinha’s harsh prose into German with her unruly, poetic barbs,” the jury explains its decision. The Internationaler Literaturpreis is endowed with €35,000 (€20,000 for the author, €15,000 for the translator).
On June 25 the shortlisted authors and translators, the prizewinning duo, the jury and guests gathered for Extending the Reading Zone, the celebration of the shortlist and the award ceremony. In readings, discussions of the material, interviews and roundtable discussions, they opened a multilingual course running through the contemporary “making of literature,” the multiple practices of writing, translating and reading and their consequences.
