The Department of Comparative Literature is pleased to announce that Trevor Krayer and Jess Liu were selected as the winners of the 2018 Senior Prize in Literary Translation.

Trevor Krayer (BA, International Studies and Romance Languages and Literatures) translated an excerpt from the novel Terra Fresca by João Leal from Portuguese into English. Trevor worked to faithfully convey the author’s original sentence structure in his translation, thus keeping the tone of the scene and narration style in line with the original text. He was also careful in his portrayal of the characters, using their dialog to indicate the differences in social classes and the relationships between the characters. The prize committee particularly admired the graceful fluidity of his English prose.

Jess Liu (BA, International Studies and Political Science) translated the short story Endless August by Anni Baobei from Chinese into English. Jess discovered the writing of Anni Baobei in her early teens and it sparked her passion for fiction and for writing. The Senior Prize in Literary Translation was the perfect opportunity for her to revisit this text. Over the years, Jess had translated stories between Chinese and English, and she applied these skills to her translation of the short story Endless August. Her recent reading of the story—which takes place during a time of change in 1990s China—was particularly affected by her studies in political science and international studies, adding a richness to the story that eluded her at age thirteen.

Congratulations, Trevor and Jess! And thank you to everyone who submitted a translation to this year’s contest. Look for excerpts of the winning translations in the forthcoming issue of Canon Translation Review.