DEEP VELLUM BOOKS WIN TWO MAJOR LITERARY PRIZES
DEEP VELLUM BOOKS WIN TWO MAJOR LITERARY PRIZES
· RAISED BY WOLVES by Amang Wins PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
· ABOVE US THE MILKY WAY: AN ILLUMINATED ALPHABET by Fowzia Karimi Wins Big Other Book Award for Fiction
April 9, 2021 – Raised by Wolves by Amang, published by Deep Vellum imprint Phoneme and translated from the Chinese by Steve Bradbury, has won the 2021 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. The PEN Award for Poetry in Translation is conferred yearly on a book-length translation of poetry from any language into English and is the most prestigious American annual prize for a book of translated poetry.
From the judges’ citation: “There is a lot of talk about innovative translation, but rarely can we point to a book that profoundly breaks new ground. Raised by Wolves is one such work… Amang and Bradbury bring forth a new literary model: translation that uses documentary to confess its own lyrical, actively empathetic, and at times splendidly messy collaborative process—all crafted with rigor, humor, and grace.”
Incisive and confessional, Raised by Wolves collects the most acclaimed work of Taiwanese poet and filmmaker, Amang. Keenly observational yet occasionally absurd, these poems are urgent and lucid, as Amang embraces the cruelty and beauty of life in equal measure. Raised by Wolves also presents a groundbreaking new framework for translation, featuring dialogues between author and her translator, Steve Bradbury, positing bold new theory for the act and art of translation, alongside playful conversation between two artists who happen to be close friends, as well as photographs by the poet and translator that add further depth to the work alongside the poems. This title was published by Phoneme, an imprint of Deep Vellum, in September 2020.
The PEN America Literary Awards Ceremony was held virtually the evening of April 8 and hosted by Kara Young. The ceremony is viewable online here. The 2021 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation was juried by Daniel Borzutsky, Marissa Davis, and Meg Matich. This award brings with it a cash prize of $3000.
In addition, Deep Vellum title Girls Lost by Jessica Schiefauer (translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel) was a finalist for the PEN Translation Prize in Fiction, which was won by Abdellah Taïa for A Country for Dying, translated by Emma Ramadan, who has translated five books for Deep Vellum as well, including most recently Anne Garréta’s In Concrete, and who was nominated for the PEN Translation Prize for her translation of Garréta’s debut novel in English, Sphinx (Deep Vellum, 2015).
Since 1963, the PEN America Literary Awards Program has honored outstanding voices in fiction, poetry, science writing, essays, biography, children’s literature, translation, drama, and more. this year PEN America conferred over 20 distinct juried awards, grants, and prizes, awarding more than $380,000 to more than 40 writers and translators. Find a full list of 2021 PEN Award winners here.
Also announced in a virtual ceremony the evening of April 8, Fowzia Karimi’s Above Us the Milky Way was announced as the winner of the 2020 Big Other Book Award for Fiction. This award is hosted by Big Other Magazine and editor John Madera.
From Rona Jaffe award-winner Fowzia Karimi, Above Us the Milky Way is a highly anticipated illustrated debut novel about a young family forced to flee their war-ravaged homeland, leaving behind everything and everyone beloved and familiar. The gorgeously-designed hardcover work features original full-color illustrations by the author alongside photographs and outstanding type design, and was published in April 2020. Karimi lives in North Texas.
The full Big Other Book Award ceremony is viewable online here.
Deep Vellum is a nonprofit publishing house and literary arts center founded in 2013 in Dallas, Texas with the mission to bring the world into conversation through literature.
Deep Vellum has organized hundreds of dialogue-driven events connecting readers and writers across Texas and the country, and has published a backlist of books that now includes 1,000 books by writers working in over 60 languages from more than 75 countries, and are published across five imprints—Dalkey Archive Press, A Strange Object, La Reunion, and Phoneme Media—alongside the flagship Deep Vellum brand.
