During a festive ceremony at the German consulate in Istanbul on 1 December the Tarabya Translation Prizes for literary translations were presented.
Gürsel Aytaç was honoured with the major translation prize. Ms Aytaç is the Turkish translator of literary works by such authors as Thomas Mann, Elias Canetti, Max Frisch and Barbara Frischmuth. As the head of the department of German philology of Ankara University she has written extensively on German literature.
Suzan Geridönmez also received a prize in recognition of her translations of children’s and young people’s literature, including novels by Christine Nöstlinger and Silke Lambeck.
A grant for a residency in Literarisches Colloquium Berlin was awarded to Gül Gürtunca.
The Tarabya Translation Prizes are awarded annually to outstanding literary translators from German to Turkish and from Turkish to German. The prizes, awarded by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Goethe Institute, Yunus Emre Institute, Robert Bosch Foundation and S. Fisher Foundation, aim to support the intellectual and cultural exchange between the two countries, and stress the importance of literary translators as intercultural ambassadors. This is the fifth year the prizes have been awarded. The next round of awards, for literary translators from Turkish to German, will be held in 2015.
(http://www NULL.ceatl NULL.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/turkey NULL.tarabya NULL.picture1 NULL.jpg)Suzan Geridönmez, Gürsel Aytaç and Gül Gürtunca (with flowers, from left to right).