Finalists have been named for the inaugural Cercador Prize for Literature in Translation, which was co-founded by Pacific Northwest book workers Justin Walls and Spencer Ruchti to recognize works of literature in translation as selected by a committee of independent booksellers across the U.S. Ruchti serves as the inaugural committee chair.
The finalists feature translations from Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Indonesian, Chinese, Danish, Norwegian, and French with a total of eight publishers represented across 10 titles. The winning title will be announced November 13, and the book's translator receives $1,000. This year's Cercador Prize finalists are:
This Is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor, translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes (New Directions)
Of Cattle and Men by Ana Paula Maia, translated from the Portuguese by Zoë Perry (Charco Press)
Whale by Cheon Myeong-kwan, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim (Archipelago Books)
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu, translated from the Indonesian by Tiffany Tsao (Feminist Press)
Beijing Sprawl by Xu Zechen, translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang and Eric Abrahamsen (Two Lines Press)
Not Even the Dead by Juan Gómez Bárcena's, translated from the Spanish by Katie Whittemore (Open Letter Books)
Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey (Bloomsbury Publishing)
My Work by Olga Ravn, translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (New Directions)
A Shining by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls (Transit Books)
The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers' Guild by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Frank Wynne (New Directions)
"The committee couldn't be more pleased with the quality of these selections, which represent an excellent breadth of intellectual depth and diverse experiences," Ruchti noted. "It's most interesting, though not surprising, that nine out of ten of our titles come from small, independent publishers. Five of the eight publishers represented are nonprofits. And all of the authors on our list were first brought to the attention of U.S. readers by independent presses."
The prize's five committee members for 2023 are Thu Doan of East Bay Booksellers (Oakland, Calif.); Riley Rennhack of Deep Vellum Books (Dallas, Tex.); Javier Ramirez of Exile in Bookville (Chicago, Ill.); Gary Lovely of Prologue Bookshop (Columbus, Ohio); and Ruchti of Third Place Books (Seattle, Wash.).