ULTRAMARINE wins the 2024 Albertine Translation Prize

NEW YORK, NY — Ultramarine by Mariette Navarro, translated from the French by Eve Hill-Agnus, has won the 2024 Albertine Translation Prize. Founded in 2006 with the aim of promoting Francophone literature, this annual prize honors both translators and American publishers for English translations of works that have been published in France in the last 10 years. From hundreds of eligible titles, a committee of independent professional experts (academics, translators, and publishers) selected works that epitomize the many facets of a vibrant French literary scene.

Sparse and psychological, Ultramarine is the metaphorically disorienting tale of a female shipping captain who loses control of her thinking—and her crew—aboard a cargo ship in the Atlantic. As instruments fail, weather reports contradict the senses, and the ship’s personnell mysteriously grows in number, Navarro “lulls her readers into accepting the unacceptable” (Asymptote) through deft, lyrical prose and pared-down dialogue, expertly rendered in Hill-Agnus’s poetic translation. In a starred review in January, Publishers Weekly declared Ultramarine “a captivating saga that lures and disturbs in equal measure.”

The 2024 Albertine Translation Prize ceremony was held at Villa Albertine’s New York headquarters on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, hosted by Ed Nowatka, senior international editor of Publishers Weekly. Prizes were awarded in fiction to Eve Hill-Agnus for her translation of Ultramarins by Mariette Navarro, and in non-fiction to Gregory Elliot for his translation of Pourquoi la guerre? by Frédéric Gros. This prize carries with it a cash award of $5,000 to each translator for their work. A complete list of titles and publishers supported by the Albertine Translation Fund in 2024 is available here.

Deep Vellum is a nonprofit publishing house and literary arts organization with the mission to bring the world into conversation through literature. Founded in 2013, Deep Vellum has expanded to encompass six distinct publishing imprints, and is now the largest publisher of translated literature in the United States.

Ultramarine publishes in the U.S. on March 4, 2025. It is available now for pre-order from Deep Vellum, Bookshop.org, or your local independent bookstore.