The PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants were established in 2003 by PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) following a gift of $730,000 by Michael Henry Heim, a noted literary translator. Heim believed that there was a "dismayingly low number of literary translations currently appearing in English". The grants' purpose is to promote the publication and reception of translated world literature in English. Grants are awarded each year to a select number of literary translators based on quality of translation as well as the originality and importance of the original work. The Fund's mission is to promote the publication and reception of world literature.
Since the first grants were awarded in 2004, the Fund has supported translations of books from more than 30 languages.
Many works supported by the Fund are eventually published, and a significant number have won or been shortlisted for major literary awards, including the Best Translated Book Award, the Northern California Book Award for Translation, the R. R. Hawkins Award for Outstanding Professional, Reference or Scholarly Book, the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize, and Griffin Poetry Prize. Others have received additional support from the Lannan Foundation, or been named one of the New York Public Library's annual list of 25 Books to Remember.
Previously known as the PEN Translation Fund Grants, the awards were renamed in honor of Heim, who insisted on complete anonymity, after his death in 2012.
List of recipients
2004 The names of ten winners were announced. The voting members of the advisory board were Esther Allen, Sara Bershtel, Barbara Epler, Michael Henry Heim, and Eliot Weinberger. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Andrea Berger Bestiarium Transylvaniae I: The Birds of the Air Bestiarium Transylvaniae I: Az ég madarai Zsolt Láng Hungarian Philip Boehm Settlement Landnahme Christoph Hein German Metropolitan Books Peter Cole The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950–1492 Hebrew Princeton University Press Kent Johnson and Forrest Gander The Night La noche Jaime Sáenz Spanish Princeton University Press Idra Novey The Clean Shirt of It Paulo Henriques Britto Portuguese BOA Editions Joonseong (Jason) Park Diary of a Vagabond Song Yong Korean Codhill Press Kristin Prevallet The Other World: Unpublished Writings L'autre monde: Écrits inédits Sony Lab'ou Tansi French Timothy Sergay A Gloom Descends Upon the Ancient Steps Ложится мгла на старые ступени Aleksandr Chudakov Russian Gerald Turner Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century Europeana: Stručné dějiny dvacátého věku Patrik Ouředník Czech Dalkey Archive Press Elizabeth Winslow The War Works Hard Dunya Mikhail Arabic New Directions Publishing
2005 The names of thirteen winners were announced. The voting members of the advisory board were Esther Allen, Sara Bershtel, Barbara Epler, Michael Henry Heim, and Eliot Weinberger. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Chris Andrews Last Evenings on Earth Llamadas telefónicas Roberto Bolaño Spanish New Directions Publishing Rachel Tzvia Back Selected Poetry and Drama Leah Goldberg Hebrew The Toby Press Susan Bernofsky The Old Child and Other Stories Geschichte vom alten Kind Jenny Erpenbeck German New Directions Publishing Heather Cleary The Persuasion of Days Persuasión de los días Oliverio Girondo Spanish New Directions Publishing Karen Emmerich Poems (1945-1971) Ποιήματα (1945-1971) Miltos Sachtouris Greek Archipelago Books Jason Grunebaum The Girl with the Golden Parasol पीली छतरी वाली लड़की Uday Prakash Hindi Yale University Press Deborah Hoffman The Littlest Enemies: Children in the Shadow of the Gulag Дети ГУЛАГа Semyon Vilensky (editor) Russian Slavica Publishers Elizabeth Macklin Meanwhile Take My Hand Bitartean heldu eskutik Kirmen Uribe Basque Graywolf Press Susanna Nied Butterfly Valley: A Requiem Sommerfugledalen: Et requiem Inger Christensen Danish New Directions Publishing Laima Sruoginis My Voice Betrays Me Išsiduosi. Balsu Vanda Juknaitė Lithuanian East European Monographs George Szirtes War and War Háború és háború László Krasznahorkai Hungarian New Directions Publishing Paul Vincent Summer in Termuren Zomer te Ter-Muren Louis Paul Boon Dutch Dalkey Archive Press Susan Wilf Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China 我的反动自述 Kang Zhengguo Chinese W. W. Norton & Company
2006 The names of nine winners were announced. The voting members of the advisory board were Esther Allen, Sara Bershtel, Barbara Epler, Michael Henry Heim, Michael F. Moore, Richard Sieburth, and Eliot Weinberger. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Chris Andrews Collected Poems Henry Parland Swedish Ugly Duckling Victoria Haggblom To Mervas Till Mervas Elisabeth Rynell Swedish Archipelago Books Nicky Harman Banished! 扎根 Han Dong Chinese University of Hawaii Press Ann L. Huss Beauty 人面桃花 Ge Fei Chinese Sawako Nakayasu For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut 胡桃の戦意のために Takashi Hiraide Japanese New Directions Publishing Tegan Raleigh The Tongue's Blood Does Not Run Dry: Algerian Stories Oran, langue morte Assia Djebar French Seven Stories Press Constantine Rusanov The Junction Tomas Venclova Lithuanian Bloodaxe Stepan S. Simek Theremin Teremin Petr Zelenka Czech 3sisters2002.cz 3sestry2002.cz Iva Volánková Alan Trei and Inna Feldbach Truth and Justice I: Robber’s Rise Tõde ja õigus I A. H. Tammsaare Estonian
2007 The names of ten winners were announced. The voting members of the advisory board were Esther Allen, Sara Bershtel, Barbara Epler, Michael Henry Heim, Michael F. Moore, Richard Sieburth, and Eliot Weinberger. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Susan Bernofsky The Assistant Der Gehülfe Robert Walser German New Directions Publishing Jennifer Hayashida Clockwork and Flowers: Explanations and Poems Fredrik Nyberg Swedish Wen Huang The Woman from Shanghai 告别夹边沟 Yang Xianhui Chinese Pantheon Ha-yun Jung A Lone Room 외딴방 Shin Kyung-sook Korean Pegasus Books Sara Khalili Seasons of Purgatory Shahriar Mandanipour Persian Bellevue Literary Press Paul Olchváry The Ninth A kilencedik Ferenc Barnás Hungarian Northwestern University Press Red Pine In Such Hard Times Wei Yingwu Chinese Copper Canyon Press Katherine Silver Senselessness Insensatez Horacio Castellanos Moya Spanish New Directions Publishing Christopher Southward Acacia Hitonari Tsuji Japanese The Brooklyn Rail (excerpt) Alyson Waters A Splendid Conspiracy Un complot de saltimbanques Albert Cossery French New Directions Publishing
2008 The names of eight winners were announced.
The voting members of the advisory board were Sara Bershtel, Edwin Frank, Michael Henry Heim, Michael F. Moore, Richard Sieburth and Jeffrey Yang, and Esther Allen served as the non-voting Chair. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Bernard Adams Kornél Esti Dezső Kosztolányi Hungarian New Directions Publishing Jeffrey Angles Twelve Views from the Distance 十二の遠景 Mutsuo Takahashi Japanese University of Minnesota Press Andrea Lingenfelter Padma 莲花 Anni Baobei Chinese Jessica Moore Turkana Boy Jean-François Beauchemin French Talonbooks Sean Redmond Another Holy Land: Felix Fabri’s Voyage to Medieval Egypt Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terræ Sanctæ, Arabiæ et Egypti Peregrinationem Felix Fabri Latin American University in Cairo Press Mira Rosenthal Colonies Kolonie Tomasz Różycki Polish Zephyr Press Damion Searls Amsterdam Stories Nescio Dutch New York Review Books Simon Wickham-Smith The Battle for Our Land Has Begun Ochirbatyn Dashbalbar Mongolian Dashbalbar Foundation
2009 The names of eleven winners were announced.
The voting members of the advisory board were Sara Bershtel, Edwin Frank, Michael Henry Heim, Michael F. Moore, Richard Sieburth, and Jeffrey Yang, and Esther Allen served as the non-voting Chair. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Eric Abrahamsen My Spiritual Homeland 我的精神家园 Wang Xiaobo Chinese Mee Chang Garden of Youth 유년의 뚤 Oh Jung-hee Korean Robyn Creswell The Clash of Images La querelle des images Abdelfattah Kilito French New Directions Publishing Brett Foster Elemental Rebel: The Rime of Cecco Angiolieri Cecco Angiolieri Italian Able Muse (excerpt) G.M. Goshgarian The Remnants Մնացորդաց Hagop Oshagan Armenian Gomidas Institute Tess Lewis Maybe This Time Die Kinder beruhigte das nicht Alois Hotschnig German Peirene Press Fayre Makeig Mourning Hushang Ebtehaj Persian Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Songs of Kabir Kabir Hindi New York Review Books Frederika Randall Deliver Us from Evil Libera nos a malo Luigi Meneghello Italian Northwestern University Press Daniel Shapiro Missing Persons, Animals and Artists Desaparecidos, animales y artistas Roberto Ransom Spanish Swan Isle Press Chantal Wright A Hand Full of Water Eine Hand voll Wasser Tzveta Sofronieva German White Pine Press
2010 The names of eleven winners were announced.
The voting members of the advisory board were Esther Allen, David Bellos, Susan Bernofsky, Edwin Frank, Michael F. Moore, and Jeffrey Yang. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Daniel Brunet The Last Fire Das letzte Feuer Dea Loher German Alexander Dawe Short Stories Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar Turkish Peter Golub Or Tea? The Selected Short Fiction of Linor Goralik Linor Goralik Russian Piotr Gwiazda Kopenhaga Grzegorz Wróblewski Polish Zephyr Press David Hull Waverings 動搖 Mao Dun Chinese Chinese University of Hong Kong Press Akinloye A. Ojo Afaimo and Other Poems Akinwunmi Isola Yoruba Angela Rodel Holy Light Свещена светлина Georgi Tenev Bulgarian Margo Rosen Poetry and Untruth Поэзия и неправда Anatoly Naiman Russian Chip Rossetti Animals in Our Days Mohamed Makhzangi Arabic Words Without Borders (excerpt) Bilal Tanweer Love in Chakiwara and Other Misadventures Mohammad Khalid Akhtar Urdu Pan Macmillan India Diane Thiel The Great Green Η μεγάλη πράσινη Evgenia Fakinou Greek
2011 The names of eleven winners were announced. The voting members of the advisory board were David Bellos, Susan Bernofsky, Edwin Frank, Michael Reynolds, Natasha Wimmer, and Jeffrey Yang, and Michael F. Moore served as the non-voting Chair. TranslatorTitleOriginal titleAuthorLanguagePublisher Amiri Ayanna The St. Katharinental Sister Book: Lives of the Sisters of the Dominican Convent at Diessenhofen Lebensbeschreibung viler in allhiessigem gottshauss heylig-mässig gelebter closter-jungfrawen German Asymptote (excerpt) Neil Blackadder The Test (Good Simon Korach) Die Probe (Der brave Simon Korach) Lukas Bärfuss German Clarissa Botsford Sworn Virgin Vergine giurata Elvira Dones Italian And Other Stories Steve Bradbury Salsa Hsia Yü Chinese Zephyr Press Annmarie S. Drury Stray Truths: Selected Poems of Euphrase Kezilahabi Euphrase Kezilahabi Swahili Michigan State University Press Diane Nemec Ignashev Paranoia Паранойя Victor Martinovich Russian Northwestern University Press Chenxin Jiang Memories of the Cowshed 牛棚杂忆 Ji Xianlin Chinese New York Review Books Hilary B. Kaplan Rilke Shake Angélica Freitas Portuguese Phoneme Catherine Schelbert Flametti, or The Dandyism of the Poor Flametti, oder Vom Dandysmus der Armen Hugo Ball German Wakefield Press Joel Streicker Birds in the Mouth Pájaros en la boca Samanta Schweblin Spanish Wakefield Press Sarah L. Thomas Turnaround Cambio de sentido Mar Gómez Glez Spanish Words Without Borders (excerpt)
2012 The names of thirteen winners were announced. The voting members of the advisory board were Susan Bernofsky, Barbara Epler, Edwin Frank, Michael Reynolds, Richard Sieburth, Eliot Weinberger, and Natasha Wimmer, and Michael F. Moore served as the non-voting Chair.