Shortlists announced for the French Translation Awards held in memory of Tahsin Yücel

Institut français Türkiye has announced the shortlists for the French Translation Awards, which are being held for the fourth time this year in memory of Tahsin Yücel to support high-quality literary translations and give the profession of translation the value it deserves.

The translators and works selected for the shortlist for the Institut français Translation Award, which will be presented in two categories this year—General Literature and Graphic Novel—are (in alphabetical order):

General Literature

Ekin Özlü Akseki 
Tek Bir Gul (Muriel Barbery), Kırmızı Kedi Yayınevi

Hazel Bilgen 
Dul Ölümsüz Eş Arıyor (Jean Louis Fournier), Yapı ve Kredi Yayınları

Sirin Erkan Leitao 
Segu, Toprak Surlar (Maryse Condé), Bilgi Yayınevi

Graphic Novel Category

Damla Kellecioğlu 
Oleg (Frederik Peeters), Baobab Yayınları

Saadet Özen
Şibumi (Pat Perna & J.B. Hostache), Alfa Kitap

The winners of the Institut français Translation Award in both categories will be announced at the awards ceremony to be held at the Palais de France on October 24, 2024.

The Institut français Türkiye Translation Award has been set at 50,000 TL for each category. The award will be given to two translators in the General Literature and Graphic Novel categories. In addition, an Honorary Award will be presented to a translator who has stood out in their career for bringing French works into Turkish.

The Institut français French Translation Award was presented in 2021 to Ebru Erbaş for her translation of Mahir Güven's novel "Ağabey," while the Honorary Award was presented to Aysel Bora, who passed away that same year.

In 2022, Zuhal Karagöz won the Institut français Translation Award for translating Bernard Lahire's book "Rüyaların Sosyolojik Yorumu" into Turkish, while Roza Hakmen was deemed worthy of the Honorary Award.

The 2023 Institut français Translation Award was won by Siren İdemen for her translation of Annie Ernaux's book "Boş Dolaplar" into Turkish. The Honorary Award was presented to Dr. İsmet Birkan.

The jury for the Institut français Translation Award is chaired by Timour Muhidine, head of the Turkish Department at INALCO and collection manager at Actes Sud Publishing. The jury members consist of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lâle Özcan from Yıldız Technical University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zeynep Oral, Head of the Translation Department at Hacettepe University, Dr. Şilan Karadağ, lecturer and translator at Galatasaray University, and translator and editor Ayça Sezen.

According to the statement made by the jury, the evaluation was based on criteria such as the translator's use of language and style in the Turkish text being equivalent in style and level to the choices of the source text's author, the accurate and sufficient transfer of concrete information and concepts, the resolution of problems arising from cultural context differences in an acceptable manner in the translation, and accuracy, fluency, precision, richness of vocabulary, rhythm, and readability in terms of writing quality.

News Source: 12punto