Saturday, October 15, 2011

Judges for the £10,000 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012 announced in London

The Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival Nick Barley, and Xiaolu Guo (left), who wrote the Orange shortlisted A Concise Chinese–English Dictionary for Lovers, have joined the panel of judges for the £10,000 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2012.

The Prize is awarded annually for the best work of contemporary fiction in translation. It celebrates an exceptional work of fiction by a living author which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom in 2011.

Uniquely, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize acknowledges both the author and the translator equally, recognising the importance of the translator in their ability to bridge the gap between languages and cultures.

The judges for this year’s Prize are:

  • Freelance critic, feature writer and broadcaster Hephzibah Anderson
  • Nick Barley, Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival
  • Jon Cook, Professor of Literature and Director of the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts at the University of East Anglia, and Chair of Arts Council England, East.
  • Novelist, short story writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo
  • Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor of the Independent
The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize ran previously between 1990 and 1995 and the Prize was revived with the support of Arts Council England in 2001. The £10,000 Prize money and associated costs are funded by Arts Council England who manage the Prize in partnership with Booktrust. The Prize is also supported by the Independent and Champagne Taittinger. 

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