We are delighted to announce our new prize for translated literature, to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Writers in Translation. The English PEN Literature in Translation Award, voted for by the English PEN Writers in Translation Committee, will be presented on Monday 8th November 2010 at a reception to be held at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon, London.
The winner of the inaugural English PEN Literature in Translation Award is Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya, an unsparing dissection of the corruption, cronyism, violence and fraud perpetrated under Putin's presidency. The book was banned in Russia; two years after its UK publication, in October 2006, Politkovskaya was shot dead in the stairwell of her Moscow apartment block.
The Writers in Translation Committee has chosen Putin's Russia for its intelligence, lucidity, fearless commitment to the higher ideals of freedom of speech, and the quality of its translation. The prize fund will be divided between the estate of Anna Politkovskaya and the book's translator, Arch Tait. The Committee also commends The Harvill Press (now Harvill Secker) for its strong publicity and marketing campaigns in support of the book.
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