The nominees were announced during Finncon 2013 Festival, the largest assembly for fantasy and science-fiction literature, which took place in Helsinki on the 6th and 7th of July. The award nominations are usually for English translations of books that fall within these genres. This year, along with Kaytek the Wizard, nominations went to the translation of Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers, the collection of science fiction novellas by J.H. Rosny, and to books by Hideo Furukawa and Selvedin Avdić. The winners of the competition will be announced in August.
The Antonia Lloyd-Jones translation of the Korczak tale, illustrated by Avi Katz, an Israeli illustrator and draughtsman, was published by Penlight Publications in June 2012. The book has received positive reviews in which it was frequently compared to the Harry Potter series.
Lloyd-Jones is one of the prominent and recently also among the most active translators of Polish literature into English – last year seven books she worked on were published. Along with Kaytek the Wizard, she translated the Ryszard Kapuściński biography written by Artur Domosławski, and White Fever by Jacek Hugo-Bader. In the past she has worked on English versions of books by Paweł Huelle, Kapuściński, Olga Tokarczuk and Wojciech Jagielski – she is considered a mentor by many young translators of Polish into English.
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards have been presented since 2011. Their purpose is to promote non-English authors and draw attention to the precious work of translators. English versions of Polish works have been nominated for this award already in the previous years. These have included Lloyd-Jones’s and Danusia Stock’s translations of books by Stanisław Lem, Piotr Szulkin, Jacek Dukaj and Wojciech Orliński.
The recipients of the award will be announced in August 2013. Each of the authors and translators will receive a monetary reward of $350.
Kaytek the Wizard, written in 1934 by Janusz Korczak, is one of the most popular Polish books for children – so far the novel has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Russian, and soon also Belarusian. The English version of the book was released with the support of the translation programme Copyright Poland, administered by Instytut Książki, the Book Institute in Kraków.
Sources: Instytut Książki, http://www.sfftawards.org/, ed. mg, 12.07.2013 transl. AM 15.07.2013