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Translation Prize
The Robert Fagles
Translation Prize



In furthering the original mission of The National Poetry Series - to recognize and promote excellence in contemporary poetry - NPS is pleased to announce the establishment of THE ROBERT FAGLES TRANSLATION PRIZE.

This award will be given annually to a translator who has shown exceptional skill in translating a book of contemporary poetry into English. Nominations will be received in conjunction with the PEN Translation Fund/The Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University and from a select group of advisors. Each year The National Poetry Series will choose a distinguished translator to serve as the final judge for this prize. The winner, who will be announced in May, will have until the following January to complete work on his or her translation. Publication will be the following September. The winning translator will receive a $2,000 cash prize and book publication. The translated poet will receive a $500 honorarium.

Information For Selected Nominators
THE TRANSLATION PRIZE IS NOT AN OPEN COMPETITION. Selected Nominators, please refer to the Translation Prize Guidelines.
Robert Fagles is a distinguished translator of Greek classics, and was recently awarded the National Humanities Medal by the President of the United States. He is celebrated for his popular translations of Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," Sophocles' "The Three Theban Plays" and Aeschylus' "The Oresteia," which have sold more than 2 million copies. His latest work, a translation of Virgil's "The Aeneid," took nearly a decade to complete and was published in 2007. Mr. Fagles has received numerous awards, including the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of American Poets. Fagles serves as the Arthur Marks Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University.


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