In New York, the awarding of the best translators of Russian literature

NEW YORK. On May 29, one of the oldest New York bibliophile clubs, the 130-year-old Grolier Club, hosted a ceremony to announce the winners of the Read Russia English Translation Prize 2015, awarded for the best English translation of classical and contemporary Russian literature.

The winner of the award was the writer Oliver Redi for translating the work of Vladimir Sharov “Before and During.” As the jury noted, Redi’s translation is not perfect, but of excellent quality. He managed to convey the writer’s confused train of thought, which combines love for Lenin and Christ, who tries to deal with the Bolshevik legacy and at the same time prays for the sinner Ivan the Terrible.

According to the decision of the award committee, Vladimir Sharov’s book “Before and During”, translated by Oliver Redi, will be included in the Russian Library cycle. This cycle is a collection of one hundred works of Russian poetry, prose and drama, published in the best English translations.

Also, two more translators who last year had noisy success in the literary field did not go unnoticed. This is Rosamund Bartlett and Marian Schwartz, who designed the translation of the work of Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina." The jury awarded them with a special prize “Hero of literary translation”.

The Read Russia English Translation Prize was established as part of the Read Russia project by the B.N. Foundation Yeltsin, with the support of the Institute of Translation and the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Media, to popularize and disseminate Russian classical literature outside of Russia.

Svetlana Korableva © Gallerix.ru