The Scott Moncrieff Prize is an annual award for translations into English of full-length French works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000.
Frank Wynne was rewarded for his translation of Standing Heavy by GauZ’ (MacLehose Press).
Judge Jane MacKenzie said:
“The writing is searingly witty, incisive, full of vivid imagery, and has been superbly translated by Frank Wynne, losing none of the humour, the energy, the authentic street view. This is a true tour-de-force in both languages and reads as joyfully and sharply in English as it does in French.”
The jury was composed of Constance Bantman, David Mills and Jane MacKenzie.
Frank Wynne is an Irish translator and writer. He began translating literary texts at the end of the 1990s, and in 2001 decided to devote himself entirely to literary translation. His work has earned him numerous awards, including the Premio Valle Inclán and the Dublin Literary Award.
He is now a three-time winner of the Scott Moncrieff Prize, having previously won in 2008 for the translations of Frédéric Beigbeder’s Holiday in a Coma and Love Lasts Three Years and in 2015 for Boualem Sansal’s Harraga.
His latest winning translation, Standing Heavy traces the experience of undocumented workers through the portraits of two generations of Ivorians. The novel won the Gibert Joseph Booksellers Prize and was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023.
The finalists of this year’s Scott-Moncrieff Prize were Adriana Hunter for The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier and Clíona Ní Ríordáin for Yell, Sam, If You Still Can by Maylis Besserie.