SYMPOSIUM 2015

2015 Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize

The MGSA is pleased to announce the 2015 Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize for original, new translations into English of a literary work published in Modern Greek

First Prize goes to Peter Bien’s translation of Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. Bien has produced a masterful translation of a classic. In spite of its popularity in English and the film adaptation, previous translations of Zorba had depended on a French intermediary. Bien’s translation is a major literary accomplishment that captures the force and subtlety of the Greek original. Bien is Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College. Zorba the Greek was published by Simon & Schuster in 2014.

Honorable Mention goes to Stathis Gauntlett’s translation of The Last Varlamis by Thanasis Valtinos. Gauntlett has captured Valtinos’s genre-bending language and has given to an English audience a rare specimen of postmodern contemporary Greek literature. Gauntlett is Professor at MCM, University of Melbourne and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. The Last Varlamis is to be published in an annotated edition in the University of Birmingham’s Modern Greek Translation Series in 2016.

The committee evaluating the 2015 MGSA Constantinides Translation Memorial Prize consisted of Patricia Barbeito, Kostis Kourelis, Kathryn Stergiopoulos, Dimitris Tziovas, and Karen Van Dyck.

Winners will be formally congratulated at the MGSA 2015 Symposium on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Sincerely,

Kostis Kourelis

Department of Art and Art History
Franklin & Marshall College