Congrats to Teju Cole! The German translation of his critically-acclaimed novel Open City won the 2013 International Literary Prize, a German award given to the best german translation of an international work. Cole goes home with the 25,000 euro prize while the translator Christine Richter-Nilsson gets 10, 000 euros.
Cole is a Nigerian-American author living in New York. Open City is his second book and tells the story of a Nigerian psychiatrist living in New York. He is presently working on a non-fictional narrative about the city of Lagos.
Christine Richter-Nilsson has had lots of experience translating from English and Swedish to German, but Open City is her first novel translation. In addition to being an accomplished dramaturgist, Nilsson is a doctoral student in the Department of German and Slavic Studies at Vanderbilt University.
PHOTOS: Celebrating African Fiction! Bibi Bakare, Billy Kahora, Igoni Barrett at the Lauch of The Etisalat Prize for Fiction | Brittle Paper June 07, 2013 13:08
[...] couple of weeks for African fiction. I would have been quite content with Teju Cole winning the International Literary Prize and Lauren Beukes getting the big Hollywood break. But two days ago, the Etisalat Prize for Fiction [...]