Antonia Lloyd-Jones receives the accolade for her outstanding achievements in translating Polish literature into English.
Michal Kubicki reports
She was honoured for the translation of The Last Supper by Pawel Huelle, published last year by Serpent’s Tail. The novel is set in Gdansk and centres on a single day in the near future. Twelve men have been invited by their mutual friend, an artist, to model at a photographic session for a modern version of The Last Supper. The reunion is disturbed as a wave of terrorist bombs paralyses the city, creating upheaval and a sense of unease. Critics describe the work as a brilliant, erudite novel of ideas.
Fifty two year-old Pawel Huelle is one of Poland’s most prominent contemporary writers. Antonia Lloyd-Jones has to her credit also Huelle’s earlier novels - Mercedes-Benz, Who Was David Weiser? and Castorp.
She has also translated a selection of short stories by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Olga Tokarczuk’s novels and Wojciech Tochman’s Like Eating a Stone.
The first recipient of the ‘Found in Translation’ Award, in 2008, was Bill Johnston. He was honoured for the translation of New Poems by Tadeusz Rozewicz. The Award was established two years ago and is sponsored by the Polish Cultural Institutes in London and New York, the Polish Book Institute and W.A.B. Publishers of Warsaw.
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