November 11, 2023—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is pleased to announce the winner of the 2023 Italian Prose in Translation Award. Starting in 2015, the Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA) recognizes the importance of contemporary Italian prose (fiction and literary non-fiction) and promotes the translation of Italian works into English. This prize is awarded annually to a translator of a recent work of Italian prose (fiction or literary non-fiction). This year’s judges are Leah Janeczko, Jenny McPhee, and Jamie Richards.
This year’s winner was announced at the Awards Ceremony held during ALTA’s 46th annual conference, ALTA46: The Place of Translation, held in Tucson, AZ from November 8-11, 2023. The ceremony, held on Saturday, November 11, included a spotlight on the 2023 shortlist. Presenting judge Jamie Richards accepted the award on the winning translator’s behalf since he was unable to attend the conference in person. The winner will be awarded a $5,000 prize and a commemorative plaque.
Winner: 2023 Italian Prose in Translation Award
The Betrothed
By Alessandro Manzoni
Translated by Michael F. Moore
The Modern Library
This is what the judges had to say about the winner:
Retranslating a classic is always a special challenge, especially when it means not simply creating a contemporary version that speaks to new readers or producing another interpretation of a widely beloved text, but trying to make a book happen for the first time in a way it never has. Michael F. Moore’s translation of Alessandro Manzoni’s great 19th-century Italian novel I promessi sposi, The Betrothed, is a happening—a literary event. While his work is everywhere evident in this irrepressibly readable historical novel, whose many narrative threads are impressively stylistically differentiated, what is most striking is this translation’s fearlessness, both in its judicious use of Italian as in “bravo” rather than “thug,” and in its confident use of idioms like “this marriage ain’t gonna happen” for the novel’s most famous, plot-sparking line. Purists may object: let them read the old translations, and leave this achievement for the rest of us.
About the winner:
Michael F. Moore’s translations include: The Drowned and the Saved, by Primo Levi; Agostino, by Alberto Moravia; Quiet Chaos, by Sandro Veronesi; and Live Bait, by Fabio Genovesi. He has served as the chair of the PEN Translation Committee and of the Advisory Board of the PEN/Heim Translation Grant. Recognition of his work includes an NEA Translation Grant, translator-in-residence at Princeton University, and a fellowship at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, Italy. He teaches literary translation at the Columbia University School of the Arts. He received his Ph.D in Italian studies from New York University.
[Image description: Michael F. Moore, a white man, stands leaning against a staircase. He is wearing a checked blue collared shirt and a navy pullover, and he is smiling.]
The 2024 Italian Prose in Translation Award submissions portal will be opened in January 2024.