Erica Chung won the £1,000 (about $1,310) Harvill Secker Young Translator's Prize, recognizing the achievements of translators aged 18-34 at the start of their careers, the Bookseller reported. Her translation of a short story by Korean author Han Yujoo "stood out for its fluency and assuredness in treating the story as a work of literature," according to the judges, who also noted: "It's exciting to see such strength in a language that's still relatively untranslated, and there was a real variety of approaches to translating Han Yujoo's richly detailed story."
In addition to the cash prize, Chung's winning translation will be published online by Granta and she will receive a selection of Harvill Secker books, as well as a six-month long Writers' Centre Norwich Emerging Translator Mentorship--presented in association with the Literary Translation Institute of Korea--with translator Deborah Smith, who was one of the judges.
Accepting the award, Chung said: "In an era when difference seems to catalyze more division than understanding, literary translation remains a critical bridge for the cultivation of empathy, as well as a bulwark of the rich cultural diversity that is our global inheritance. In light of this, I feel incredibly privileged to be able to contribute, in my own small way, to the growing repository of translated literature in the world, especially through the year-long mentorship with Deborah Smith made possible by the prize."