The jury for the Vondel Translation Prize 2011 has awarded the prize to Paul Vincent for My Little War, his English translation of Louis Paul Boon’s Mijn kleine oorlog. Vincent receives a prize of € 5000.
My Little War was published in the United States in 2010 by Dalkey Archive Press, and is the first English translation of Louis Paul Boon’s 1947 novel. The translation was financially supported by the Flemish Literature Fund.
The Board of the Yearbook The Low Countries. Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands is particularly proud with this prestigious prize for one of its own translators. Here is a list of Paul Vincent’s translations.
The Vondel Translation Prize is a biennial award for the best book translation into British or American English of a Dutch-language work of literature or cultural history. It was established by the Society of Authors and is funded by the Dutch Foundation for Literature and the Flemish Literature Fund.
The runner-up to Paul Vincent is David Colmer for The Portrait, his translation of Specht en zoon by Willem Jan Otten. The other titles on the shortlist were: Marjolijn Februari - The Book Club (Paul Vincent); Leon de Winter - God’s Gym (Jeannette Ringold); Anna Enquist - Counterpoint (Jeannette Ringold); Dimitri Verhulst, Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill (David Colmer); Douwe Draaisma, Disturbances of the Mind (Barbara Fasting); and Margriet de Moor, The Storm (Carol Brown Janeway).
This year’s jury consisted of critic Paul Binding (Times Literary Supplement) and translators Ina Rilke and Sam Garrett. The prize will be presented on 6 February 2012 at Kings Place in London, together with a number of other European translation awards.
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