Deep Vellum Publishing’s The Villain’s Dance is Named a National Book Award Finalist

On October 1st, the New York Times announced that The Villain’s Dance by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, translated from French by Roland Glasser and published by Deep Vellum Publishing, is a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature.

The National Book Award, given annually by the National Book Foundation, is among the most prestigious literary prizes in the United States. Winners receive $10,000, a bronze medal, and a statue; finalists receive $1,000 and a bronze medal. Winners and Finalists in the Translated Literature category will split the prize evenly between the author and the translator.

The 5 Finalists for translated literature were selected from a longlist of 10 books, out of 141 submitted titles. The judges for the category this year are Aron Aji, who directs the Translation Programs at the University of Iowa; Jennifer Croft, a translator and the author of the novel The Extinction of Irena Rey; Jhumpa Lahiri, whose most recent book, Roman Stories, was originally written in Italian and partially translated by the author; Gary Lovely, the co-owner and managing partner of Two Dollar Radio HQ and publisher of Harpoon Books; and Julia Sanches, who translates literature from Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan into English. Of the The Villain’s Dance, the judges said:

“In Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s The Villain’s Dance, translated from the French by Roland Glasser, readers traverse timelines, perspectives, and borders, following a cast of characters whose quests for survival amidst political, environmental, and financial uncertainty somehow, ultimately, converge.”

Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Roland Glasser, along with all the 2024 Finalists, will read from their work at the National Book Awards Finalist Reading on the evening of Tuesday, November 19 at NYU Skirball, an annual in-person, ticketed event that is open to the public and livestreamed for readers everywhere. The Finalist Reading is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the NYU Creative Writing Program, and tickets are available for purchase on NYU Skirball’s website.

The Winners of the National Book Award for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature will be announced live on Wednesday, November 20 at the invitation-only 75th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. The National Book Foundation will broadcast the Ceremony for readers everywhere on YouTube, Facebook, and the Foundation’s website at nationalbook.org/awards. The 75th National Book Awards Ceremony will also be broadcast in its entirety on Sunday, December 1 on Book TV on C-SPAN2 at 8:00pm ET / 5:00pm PT, and again at 12:00am ET / 9:00pm PT.

As part of the celebrations, Mwanza Mujila & Glasser will also attend the Miami Book Fair, November 22-24. The Miami Book Fair is an official partner of NBF Presents, the National Book Foundation’s public programming efforts to reach readers everywhere.

Fiston Mwanza Mujila was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1981 and lives in Austria today. His debut novel, Tram 83, published in English in 2015 by Deep Vellum (translation by Roland Glasser), won the Etisalat Prize for Literature and the German International Literature Award and was longlisted for the International Booker Prize and the Prix littéraire du Monde. In addition to the poetry collection The River in the Belly (published by Deep Vellum in 2021, translation by J. Bret Maney), he is the author of the poetry collections Craquelures (2011) and Soleil privé de mazout (2016), as well as three plays, Et les moustiques sont des fruits à pépins (2015), Te voir dressé sur tes deux pattes ne fait que mettre de l’huile sur le feu (2015), and Zu der Zeit der Königinmutter (2018). His writing responds to political turbulence in his native country and frequently foregrounds its debt to jazz.

Roland Glasser grew up in London, studied French and Theatre Studies at Aberystwyth University (Wales) and Film and Dramatic Arts at the University of Caen (Normandy), before spending a decade living in Paris, where he developed a successful career in translation, literary editing, and theater lighting design. His translation of Adéline Dieudonné’s best-selling Real Life was shortlisted for the Scott-Moncrieff Prize. He has contributed articles and essays to various publications and is a co-founder of The Starling Bureau, a London-based collective of literary translators.

Full of wit, music, and a rollicking cast of characters, The Villain's Dance shows Fiston Mwanza Mujila at his best.

Zaire; late 1990s. Mobutu's thirty-year reign is tottering. In Lubumbashi, the stubborn, homeless Sanza has fallen in with a trio of veteran street kids led by the devious Ngungi. A chance encounter with the mysterious Monsieur Guillaume seems to offer a way out…

Meanwhile, Molakisi has joined thousands of fellow Zairians in Angola, hoping to make their fortune by hunting diamonds. At the same time, Austrian Franz finds himself roped into writing the memoirs of the charismatic Tshiamuena, "Madonna of the Cafunfo Mines." Things are drawing to a head, but at the Mambo de la Fête, they still dance the Villain's Dance from dusk till dawn.

The publication of The Villain’s Dance was supported by a grant for Excellence in Publication and Translation from Albertine Translation (formerly Hemingway Grants), a program created by Villa Albertine. Our programming is only made possible by generous donations from institutions and individuals who strengthen our mission, for which we are deeply grateful. Deep Vellum exists to bring all voices together in literature.

Dallas is underserved in terms of the literary arts. Nationally, less than 0.1% of books published annually are new translations, and fewer than 10% come from non-European languages. Women author less than 50% of translated works, and 95% of books published in the last century are by White writers. In Texas, less than 2% of books published yearly are by Texas writers, despite the state representing 10% of the US population. Deep Vellum is committed to reversing these trends and ensuring all voices are heard and valued, as well as that the dialogue between individuals and entire cultures can be advanced through the literary arts. This prestigious recognition proves that stories from every corner of the world deserve to be told.