award

The Joseph Tusiani Italian Translation Prize

Due Date: 08-31-2021

The Journal of Italian Translation (JIT), recognizing the essential work that literary translators do to promote understanding among people who speak different languages, is pleased to announce the establishment of the Joseph Tusiani Italian Translation Prize, created to promote translation of Italian literary texts into English. As most of you know, Joseph Tusiani, who passed away this year, was one of the most talented translators of Italian poetry who lent his voice to the greatest Italian poets from the beginning to the present. His monumental and masterful translations stand as a model to all translators, and it is appropriate to name our prize after a man who spent his life building bridges among cultures. By naming the prize after Tusiani, we honor his legacy and the art of translation. He was a conduit through which Latin, Italian, Apulian, and English found a voice.

The prize will be awarded annually, beginning in 2021. The winner of the competition will be awarded $1,000 at a ceremony to be held sometime in December 2021 at a location to be determined, presumably in the New York metropolitan area. The winner will be announced the last week of November 2021. Naturally, these dates assume that the problems caused by the COVID-19 will be under control.

Only book-length translations of Italian literary works published in 2020–21 are eligible. In the future we may accept works translated into English from any Italian dialects. The translations submitted for the competition must be sent in electronic form (PDF or e-book format) to Gaetano Cipolla, associate editor of JIT, who is the chairman of the jury: gcipolla@optonline.net.

Translations submitted for the prize must be received by 31 August 2021.