The winners of the Premio Valle Inclán for translation from Spanish have been announced.
The winning and commended titles were presented at the Society of Authors Translation Prizes gala, held on 17 February 2016 at Europe House. Read the full press release
The Premio Valle Inclán is generously sponsored by the Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain in London, the Instituto Cervantes in London and Arts Council England.
The winner of the Premio Valle Inclán for translation from Spanish is Anne McLean for her translation of Outlaws by Javier Cercas (Bloomsbury). Judges John King and Jason Wilson said:
Anne McLean’s splendid, convincing translation of Javier Cercas’s compelling portrait of a teenage hoodlum, in post-Franco Spain, conveys with great subtlety and accuracy the shifting narrations and narrative tempo, the nuances of voice and of class difference and the evocations of urban landscapes and communities in the process of rapid change.
Anne McLean has translated Latin-American and Spanish novels, short stories, memoirs and other writings from authors including Héctor Abad, Julio Cortázar and Juan Gabriel Vásquez. She has twice won the independent Foreign Fiction Prize and was awarded the Spanish Cross of the Order of Civil Merit in recognition of her contribution to making Spanish literature known to a wider public.
Margaret Jull Costa was commended for her translation of Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós (New York Review Books).
The judges said:
‘An excellent, modernising translation of a light, slightly mocking novel – a classic – once filmed by Buñuel.’
Margaret Jull Costa, OBE has been a translator of Spanish and Portuguese fiction and poetry for over twenty-seven years. She has translated many of the greats of Spanish and Portuguese literature including the works of Eça de Queiroz, José Saramago, Javier Marías and Bernardo Atxaga. Her work has won the Premio Valle Inclán three times and been commended a further four.
For more information on this press release, please contact Paula Johnson at the Society of Authors, on PJohnson@societyofauthors.org or 020 7373 6642.