Ferrante novel a finalist for translation prize

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Elena Ferrante’s “The Story of the Lost Child,” the most recent bestseller by the Italian author whose identity is unknown to the general public, is a finalist for a translation prize.

Ferrante’s novel, translated by Ann Goldstein, is among 15 fiction nominees for the Best Translated Book Award. The poetry category has 10 finalists. They include “Empty Chairs” by China’s by Liu Xia, translated by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern, and Angelica Freitas’ “Rilke Shake,” translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kaplan.

Through a grant from Amazon.com, winning writers and translators each receive $5,000. A shortlist will be announced April 19, and winners will be announced May 4.

The awards were announced Tuesday by the online literary resource Three Per cent. The full list of nominees can be found on http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent .