Translator Kate Briggs, seeing an email from the prize\u2019s director, thought she was going to be asked to present a prize; she had no expectation that $165,000 was shortly going to be hers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the world\u2019s richest literary awards, the Windham-Campbell prizes give an unrestricted grant of $165,000 to eight writers each year, celebrating \u201cextraordinary literary achievement\u201d by allowing them to \u201cfocus on their work independent of financial concerns\u201d. This year\u2019s recipients range from Briggs to the 85-year-old American memoirist Vivian Gornick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Briggs, who was born in the UK and now lives and teaches in Rotterdam, has published one book of her own, This Little Art, a mix of memoir and history about the art of literary translation, and has also translated writers including Roland Barthes and Michel Foucault. She described herself as \u201castonished by the news\u201d of her win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI got an email from the director of the prize, saying could we set up a phone call, and that he had some some great news,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that point, I was thinking, well, it probably means something like they want me to present a prize, or translate something. I didn\u2019t think it was really happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Windham-Campbell prize called This Little Art a \u201cbrilliant\u201d book which \u201cdefies categorisation\u201d, and \u201carticulates and refracts the many strangenesses and paradoxes of translation as a practice and an art\u201d. Briggs said she was very \u201cconscious of the fact that I\u2019m at the beginning of my writing and translating life\u201d, and the prize \u201creally didn\u2019t feel like anything within the horizons of my expectations for my work\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cObviously the financial aspect is transformative, but also the recognition is deeply meaningful,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve published one book under my own name, and translations, so to have it at this point where I feel like I\u2019ve relatively recently come to think of myself as a writer in the full sense is a very powerful thing \u2026 I don\u2019t expect to ever stop feeling astonished! Or grateful. It is the most unexpected gift of freedom and permission.\u201d The prizes were dreamed up by partners Donald Windham and Sandy M Campbell, book lovers and collectors who had long discussed setting up an award highlighting literary achievement, and allowing writers to focus on their work. When Campbell died unexpectedly in 1988, Windham turned the dream into a reality, with the first prizes announced in 2013. Previous recipients include Bhanu Khapil, Tessa Hadley and Edmund de Waal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: The Guardian<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"