26 November 2018
This year, for the first time, the National Book Foundation awarded a National Book Award for Translated Literature. As was no doubt their intention, the prominence of the award served not only as a way to celebrate great translated literature (and translators) but also as a little push to the book lovers of America to keep reading it and thinking about it-and for some, to stop and reflect on translation as a literary form. After all, there are few literary feats more magical-and more mysterious to those of us unfamiliar with the language of the source text.