The Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize 2018 is open for entry. Now in its ninth year, the Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize aims to recognise the achievements of young translators at the start of their careers. It is an annual prize, which focuses on a different language each year and is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 34, with no restriction on country of residence. The chosen language for the 2018 prize is Bengali, and entrants will translate the short story ‘Half-Timer Pawre’ by Shamik Ghosh, from his collection Elvis O Amolasundari.
This year’s prize will be judged by renowned translator Arunava Sinha, anthropologist and novelist Tahmima Anam, writer and television presenter Konnie Huq and Harvill Secker editor Mikaela Pedlow.
Shamik Ghosh was born in Kolkata in 1983, and started writing at an early age. His first short story was published in the eminent literary magazine Desh in 2003. After studying Physics at the University of Calcutta, he worked as a corporate banker in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. In 2014, he left his corporate job to pursue a creative career. His first collection of short stories Elvis O Amolasundari was published in India in 2016. He completed his first short film,Trapeze, in 2017.
In 2017, Shamik was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, India’s National Academy of Letters Young Writers’ Prize, for his debut short story collection Elvis O Amolasundari (Elvis and Amolasundari), and he also received the Ila Chanda Smriti Puraskar for his work as an emerging Bengali fiction writer, a prize awarded by one of the oldest literary institutions in India, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.
THE JUDGES
Shamik Ghosh
Shamik Ghosh was born in Kolkata in 1983, and started writing at an early age. His first short story was published in the eminent literary magazine Desh in 2003. After studying Physics at the University of Calcutta, he worked as a corporate banker in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. In 2014, he left his corporate job to pursue a creative career. His first collection of short stories Elvis O Amolasundari was published in India in 2016. He completed his first short film,Trapeze, in 2017.
In 2017, Shamik was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, India’s National Academy of Letters Young Writers’ Prize, for his debut short story collection Elvis O Amolasundari (Elvis and Amolasundari), and he also received the Ila Chanda Smriti Puraskar for his work as an emerging Bengali fiction writer, a prize awarded by one of the oldest literary institutions in India, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.
Arunava Sinha
Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction, non-fiction and poetry from Bangladesh and India into English. More than 40 of his translations have been published so far. He is the series editor of the Library of Bangladesh, and he curates the India List for Seagull Books. He is the Books editor at Scroll.in, and he teaches undergraduate classes at Ashoka University.
Tahmima Anam
Tahmima Anam is an anthropologist and novelist. Her debut novel, A Golden Age, won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book. In 2013, she was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. She is a Contributing Opinion Writer for the New York Times and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2017, she was a recipient of the O. Henry Prize and featured in Best American Short Stories for her story ‘Garments’. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University, and now lives in London.
Konnie Huq
Konnie Huq is a British television presenter and writer. She started her presenting career when she was just 17, fronting a number of children’s programmes on The Children’s Channel, CBBC and GMTV, whilst, at the same time, completing an Economics degree at Cambridge. In 2007 Konnie Huq saw out her tenth and final year on Blue Peter after becoming their 26th presenter. Konnie’s years on Blue Peter saw her taken to the far corners of the world, and among many Blue Peter highlights are: learning to scuba dive; visiting Mozambique to open one of the schools paid for by money raised during the Blue Peter New Future Appeal in 1999; a trip to the village in Bangladesh that her family originate from; learning how to be a rally driver. In recent years she has also interviewed leading stars from music and film as well as two former Prime Ministers: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Konnie Huq is also an impressive writer. She co-wrote the second instalment of the successful and critically acclaimed Channel 4 series ‘Black Mirror’.
Mikaela Pedlow
Mikaela Pedlow is Assistant Editor at Harvill Secker, where she works with many international authors including Ismail Kadare, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Per Petterson and Enrique Vila-Matas. Mikaela is the coordinator of the annual Harvill Secker Young Translators’ Prize.