Spencer Ruchti, the author events manager at Third Place Books in Seattle, and Justin Walls, the coeditor of translation-focused pick-of-the-month series Du Mois Monthly, have launched the Cercador Prize for Translation, a new bookseller-led prize for literature in translation.
Each year, a committee of five independent booksellers based across the United States will nominate two full-length translations published in the U.S. during that same calendar year; submissions from publishers, agents, authors, and translators will not be accepted. Ruchti will serve as the inaugural committee chair, with the 10 finalists to be announced no later than October 15 of this year and one winner to be announced no later than November 15.
A prize of $1,000 will be awarded to the winning translator or translators.
The inaugural prize’s five committee members include:
- Thu Doan of East Bay Booksellers in Oakland, Calif.
- Gary Lovely of Prologue Bookshop in Columbus, Ohio
- Javier Ramirez of Exile in Bookville in Chicago, Ill.
- Riley Rennhack of Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, Tex.
- Spencer Ruchti of Third Place Books in Seattle, Wash. (chair)
“The Cercador Prize is about bolstering visibility for translated literature,” Walls said in a press release announcing the award. “It’s also about drawing an explicit connection between the work of independent booksellers and literary translators whose contributions to our reading culture are often similarly obscured. Beyond seeking out the best books currently being published in English-language translation, the Cercador intends to serve as an act of collective curation across disciplines.”
