[Skip to Content]

ASF Translation Prizes

The American-Scandinavian Foundation annually awards the following four translation prizes for outstanding translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose written by a twentieth or twenty-first-century Nordic author:

  1. The Nadia Christensen Prize, which recognizes an outstanding translation of a literary text from a Nordic language into English and includes a $2,500 award, publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review, and a commemorative bronze medallion
  2. The Leif and Inger Sjöberg Award, given to an individual whose literature translations from a Nordic language have not previously been published, includes a $2,000 award, publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review, and a commemorative bronze medallion
  3. The Wigeland Prize, given to the best translation from Norwegian by a resident of Norway, includes a $2,000 award, publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review, and a commemorative bronze medallion
  4. The Inger and Jens Bruun Translation Prize, supported by Scan Design Foundation, which recognizes the best Danish translation and includes a $2,000 award, publication of an excerpt in Scandinavian Review, and a commemorative bronze medallion

Deadline: September 1 (online submission due by 11:59 pm EDT)

Guidelines:

  • The prizes are for outstanding English translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose originally written in a Nordic language.
  • Translations must be from the writing of one author, although not necessarily from a single work. 
  • The online application will require the following materials:
    1. Your CV; 
    2. A brief description of the author whose work you are translating;
    3. One copy of the translation, including a title page and a table of contents for the proposed book of which the submitted manuscript is a part. If prose, manuscripts must be 25-50 pages, double-spaced; if poetry, 15-25 pages. *Note: Manuscripts should be numbered and the translator's name should not appear on any page of the translation manuscript; submissions containing the translator's name will be disqualified;
    4. One copy of the work(s) in the original language (relevant pages only); and
    5. A letter or other document signed by the author, the author’s agent, or the author’s estate granting permission for the translation to be entered in this competition and published in Scandinavian Review.

Restrictions:

  • The translation submitted in the competition may not have been previously published in the English language by the submission deadline. (If the submitted translation is also under consideration by a publisher, you must inform us of the expected publication date.)
  • Translators may submit one entry only and may not submit the same entry in more than two competitions.
  • The Translation Prize cannot be won more than three times by the same translator

Click Here to Submit Your Translation!