Arts & culture, People, Awards, Literature

Recent Ph.D. wins 2016 PEN Translation Prize

By Kathleen Maclay

Recent UC Berkeley comparative literature Ph.D. Katrina Dodson is the winner of the 2016 PEN Translation Prize for her translation of Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s The Complete Stories .

Katrina Dodson (left) talks with Chapter & Verse podcast host Scott Saul before being named the 2016 PEN Translation Prize winner.

Katrina Dodson talks with Chapter & Verse podcast host Scott Saul before being named the 2016 PEN Translation Prize winner.

In the judges’ unanimous selection, they called Dodson’s work “a revelation that lays bare the breadth of both the author’s and translator’s talent.”

Read an excerpt of Dodson’s translation of Lispector’s story, Buffalo , online . The Complete Stories ‘ topics range from from teenagers coming into awareness of their sexual and artistic powers to housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies to old folks at a loss for what to do.

The prize for book-length translations from any language into English carries a $3,000 award. For more information about the award, click here .

Previous winners include Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who spent time as a visiting lecturer at UC Berkeley. Heaney also won a Nobel Prize for literature.

To listen to an interview with Dodson by UC Berkeley English professor and author Scott Saul, check the Chapter & Verse site for a podcast that will be posted soon. Meanwhile, the site has a short summary of Dodson’s work and related resources.