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- The 6th Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award for the year 2022 is being presented to Arunava Sinha.
- The award ceremony will be held on March 13, 2022 at 4 pm at the Mughal Tent of the Jaipur Literature Festival. Member of Parliament and author Dr. Shashi Tharoor will be the chief guest in the program.
Vani Foundation and the Teamwork Arts present the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award at the prestigious Jaipur BookMark. The award honors those translators of Indian nationality who have consistently and qualitatively facilitated literary and linguistic exchange between at least two Indian or international languages. This award was deemed necessary in light of the lack of present initiatives to encourage direct exchange between Indian and international languages. The award especially favours translators who have produced a significant literary corpus over an extended period of time, and carries a monetary prize of one lakh Indian rupees (incl. taxes as per government guidelines), in addition to the trophy and testimonial letter. The award is in its 6th edition in 2022.
The Journey so far:
• Attoor Ravi Verma(2015 -2016) : Malayalam
• Anamika (2016-2017) : Bhojpuri
• Rita Kothari (2017- 2018) : Sindhi
• Teji Grover (2018 -2019) : Hindi
• Rakhshanda Jalil (2019- 2020):Urdu
Arun Maheshwari, Chairman of Vani Foundation, along with the jury members said, “The power of the Indian languages is the power of our country. Through the Vani Foundation, we wish to strengthen the exchange between our languages. I thank the esteemed jury for their relentless contribution in choosing the awardee each year.”
The jury for the award comprises Namita Gokhale- Founder and Co-Director of Jaipur Literature Festival, Neeta Gupta- Director of Jaipur BookMark and Sundeep Bhutoria, Chairman of Prabha Kahitan Foundation, author and cultural critic.
The first Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award for the year 2016 was presented to Malayalam poet Attoor Ravi Verma. In the year 2017, this award was given to the eminent translator, poet, writer and critic Dr. Anamika. In the year 2018, cultural historian and translator Dr. Rita Kothari was given this prestigious award and in the year 2019 this award was given to the eminent poet, storyteller, translator and painter Teji Grover. The award in 2020, the Urdu scholar and critic Dr. Rakhshanda Jalil was given the award for her contribution to the world of literary translations.
Namita Gokhale, founder and Co-Director of Jaipur Literature Festival and jury of the award said, “There is so much to be done, in the field of literary translation in the subcontinent, and I know that Arunava Sinha’s nuanced transmutations will bring the many languages and one literature of India into a new level of perception and self awareness.”
On this occasion, the cultural critic and author Sundeep Bhutoria said – “It is a proud privilege to be part of the jury for the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award 2022 as they consistently work with promoting Indian languages and honour those translators who facilitated literary and linguistic exchange between Indian languages. Arunava Sinha, this year’s awardee has translated classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English and by doing so has forged a link between languages and culture. As someone who also works in promoting Indian languages, we believe in Apni Bhasha Apne Log which also happens to be the tagline of our Foundation that celebrates the confluence of India’s diverse languages, literature and Culture.”
Neeta Gupta, Publishing Consultant, Indian Languages, says- “The word prolific falls short when you are speaking of a translator with Arunava Sinha’s oeuvre. I cannot think of another person who has single-handedly contributed as much to the world of literary translation as he has.”
About the translator :
Arunava Sinha has translated classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and non-fiction into English language. About seventy nine translation works have been published by him so far.
He was also known for ‘Shankar Ki Chowringhee’ (2007) and Anita Agnihotri’s ‘Seventeen’ (2011). Twice the recipient of the Crossword Translation Award.
Arunava Sinha has also been the winner of the Museum India Translation Award (2013) for Buddhadev Bose’s ‘When the Time is Right’.
In 2009, he was selected for ‘The Independent Foreign Fiction Award’ for translation of ‘Shankar Ki Chowringhee’, and in 2021 for the National Translation Award for Taslima Nasreen’s book ‘Besharam’. And for the Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Translated YA Book Prize for his translation of Md Zafar Iqbal’s Rasha, and longlisted for the Best Translated Book award, USA, 2018 for his translation of Bhaskar Chakravarti’s Things That Happen and Other Poems. Apart from India, his translations have been published in English language in the UK and US, and his translations are to be published in many European and Asian countries in the future. At present Arunava Sinha is an Associate Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at Ashoka University and Co-Director of the Ashoka Center for Translation.
