Translation Prize

The EST Translation Prize (EUR 2,000) is awarded biannually for the most deserving project to translate key texts in Translation Studies (including research on interpreting and localization).

Deadline: 1 October 2026

 

Rules and Conditions

1. The prize shall be used to assist with the translation, editing and/or publication of a book or group of articles in any of the sub-fields of Translation Studies.
2. Applicants must be EST members at the time of applying.
3. The prize may be awarded to a translator, group of translators, or academic publisher or journal.
4. The translation may be from any language and into any language.
5. The translation shall not have been published prior to the awarding of the prize (six weeks after the application deadline), since the purpose of the prize is to promote translations that would otherwise not lead to publication.
6. Applications will be evaluated on the basis of: a) potential impact of the project on international Translation Studies, b) feasibility of the project, c) pertinent experience of the translator or translators.
7. The “potential impact” can mean the impact on international Translation Studies of the translation of a key text from a minority language or a language of lesser diffusion into a majority language , or it can mean the impact of a translation of a key text from a majority language into a minority language or language of lesser diffusion, i.e. its impact on the development of research and teaching of Translation Studies in that language community.
8. Payment of the prize shall follow acceptance by the publisher of at least one sample chapter. This acceptance must be sent to the chair of the Translation Prize Committee, who will then instruct the EST Treasurer to make the payment to the project contact person.
9. All publications and promotional materials associated with the translation shall bear the mention “With the support of the European Society for Translation Studies”.

How to apply

Applicants should send the following materials as email attachments to Isabelle Robert at isabelle.robert[at]uantwerpen.be:

1. Two-page explanation and justification of the project, addressing specifically the criteria of impact, feasibility (with a timeline to publication and an estimated breakdown of costs so we know how the award will be spent) and quality assurance (including translation experience).
2. CV of the translator or translators
3. Text to be translated.
4. Any pertinent agreements or expressions of interest from publishers, especially with respect to the purchase or granting of translation rights.

Previous winners

• In 2013 the prize was awarded to Alojz Keníž, Lucia Kosákóva, Xenia Liashuk and Katarína Koreňová for the translation of Anton Popovič’s Teória umeleckého prekladu (Theory of Literary Translation) from Slovak into English.
• In 2014 the prize was awarded to Brian James Baer, Kent State University, for his proposal for an English translation of Introduction to Translation Theory by Andrei V. Fedorov (1953).
  Published in 2021 by Routledge.
• In 2015 two prizes were awarded: one to Xiaochun Zhang for the translation into Chinese of  Game Localisation  by Minako O’Hagan and Carme Mangiron.
  The second was to Kasia Szymanska and her team for the translation from Polish into English of a selection of texts by Edward Balcerzan and Stanisław Barańczak.
  Published in 2020 by Sdvig Press.
• In 2016 the prize was awarded to a team of professors of the St Petersburg State University: Andrey Achkasov, Tamara Kazakova and Irina Lekomtseva, for the translation from English into Russian of Anthony Pym’s Exploring Translation Theories (2010, 2014).
  Published in 2018 by St. Petersburg State University Press.
• The translation prize for 2018 was awarded to a project for a translation from English into Greek of Michael Cronin’s monograph entitled Translation in the Digital Age, by Mavina Pantazara, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, together with a team of 15 young translators, who graduated at the end of 2017 from “Translation-Translatology”, a joint postgraduate program of the three Faculties of English, French and German Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
  Published in 2019 by Diavlos Books.
  
• Two translation prizes were awarded in 2020:
  (1) Translation from English into Brazilian Portuguese of Andrew Chesterman’s Memes of Translation by Monique Pfau, Federal University of Bahia, and her team of graduate students (Fernanda da Silva Góis Costa, Marília Portela Pereira, Marília Santana, Nathalia Borges Azevedo and Simone Maia Evangelista Salles).
  Published in 2022 by Edufba.
  (2) Translation from German into Greek of Katharina Reiß & Hans J. Vermeer’s Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie by Olaf Immanuel Seel, Ionian University.
  Published in 2021 by Diavlos Books.
• Translation prizes for 2022 were awarded to three projects:
  (1) Translation from Ukrainian into English of Oleksandr Finkel’s Teoriia i praktika perekladu by Oleksandr Kalnychenko, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, and Brian James Baer, Kent State University
  (2) Translation from English into Estonian of the first volume of the Handbook of Translation Studies (HTS) by Terje Loogus, University of Tartu
  (3) Translation from English into Italian of Jeremy Munday et al.’s  Introducing Translation Studies – Theories and Applications (5th ed) by Chiara Bucaria, University of Bologna
• In 2024, the translation prize was awarded to Olaf Immanuel Seel and Charikleia Alatza, Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting (DFLTI), Ionian University of Corfu, for the translation from German into Greek of a seminal work by Katharina Reiß (Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Übersetzungskritik, 1971)