Awardee Database

Awardees

Hélène Hinfray

In recognition of her masterful translation of Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life (Une histoire du monde sans sortir de chez moi, éditions Payot-Rivages). Describing the volume, Marc Chénetier writes: “There is humor, immense erudition. There is delicacy, the abolition of expected distances: in time, in space, between an American and the English place he describes, between the translator and the malicious game of intertwined tonalities. Wit, play and elegance, cultured without pretention, funny, surprising: these qualities are shared by Bill Bryson and Hélène Hinfray…. You must read this history of the world, this curious voyage, this voyage of a curious man around his room … to realize that we do not really know how to look at or interrogate the things that surround us.”

Mathilde Bach

Mathilde Bach received a recognition for her translation of William Giraldi’s Hold the Dark (Aucun homme ni dieu, editions Autrement).

Nicholas Richard

For his groundbreaking translation of Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker, which he entitled Enig marcheur. Hoban, who died in December 2011, was known for the spectrum of genres in which he wrote, including a very popular children’s series. Riddley Walker, his award-winning 1980 science fiction novel, presents a particular challenge to the translator, as its first-person narration is conducted in a language Hoban created. Nicolas Richard has translated work by a range of American authors, including Philip K. Dick, Hunter S. Thompson, Richard Brautigan and Thomas Pynchon.

Pierre Demarty

For his translation into French of Paul Harding’s Tinkers (French title, Les Foudroyés). This second Coindreau prize in our 2012 program year reflects the shift of the annual award ceremony in Paris from December to June.

Laurence Viallet

For her fine translation of The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by the Dominican author Junot Diaz. This novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, was published in France by Plon, in their Feux Croisés collection.

Serge Chauvin

For his translations of Apex and The Colossus of New York (Gallimard), by the New York novelist and MacArthur Fellow Colson Whitehead.

Christophe Claro

For his fine translations into French of Mark Danielewski’s The House of Leaves and John Barth’s The Sotweed Factor.

Michel Lederer

For his translations into French of Jane Welch’s Winter in the Blood and Harold Brodsky’s Angel (volume two of Brodsky’s Stories in an Almost Classical Mode)

*The Prix Coindreau Prize, The Jeanne Varnay Pleasants Prize for Language Teaching, and the CASVA-Henry & Judith Millon Award are currently inactive.