Watch the 2021 Translation Prize
Leer en español.
The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute proudly announces the winners of our 2021 Translation Prize:
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Winner: Sophie Hughes for her translation of Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
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Runner-up: Andrea Rosenberg for her translation of Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen
“No hay cosa más libre que el entendimento humano,”
Poemas de la única poetisa americana, musa décima, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1682.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz by Juan de Miranda
The figure of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz still remains present in today’s collective conscious. She is still lauded for her profound philosophies, her poetic cleverness, and particular outspokenness in her time in Mexico, then New Spain. Inspired by her work and her facility with the Spanish language, the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute chose to center our fourth edition of our Translation Prize in 2021 around Sor Juana.
With the aim of elevating awareness and engendering appreciation of Spanish-language literature in the United States, this $10,000 prize was created by the Cultural Committee and Board of Directors of the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute to honor the best English-language translation of a literary work written in Spanish. Though previous prizes looked specifically at the works of Spanish authors translated into English, in 2021, the Reading Committee judged the English translations of works originally written by Mexican women authors.
In 2021, the Translation Prize short-list included:
- After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel translated by Rosalind Harvey
- Taiga Syndrome by Cristina Rivera Garza translated by Suzanne Jill Levine and Aviva Kana
- Body Where I Was Born by Guadalupe Nettel translated by J.T. Lichtenstein
- Empty Set by Veronica Gerber Bicecci translated by Christina MacSweeney
- Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen translated by Andrea Rosenberg
- Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor translated by Sophie Hughes
In celebrating these translations and translators, we continue to honor our mission to build mutual understanding between the Spanish-speaking world and the United States through language and cultural exchange.
The virtual ceremony will take place on November 18th, 2021 on Youtube.
