The awards ceremony for the Benno Geiger Poetry Translation Prize 2019 will be held at 5 pm on 13 November 2019. The prizewinners are the translators Paola Feretti and Fabio Pedone.

The Prize was created in 2014 by the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in memory of the Austrian scholar Benno Geiger, whose literary archive is carefully preserved and put to good use on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

The awards ceremony will be introduced by a lecture from Prof. Franco Buffoni entitled “How to reproduce style?” (free admission while seats last; aperitif to follow).

The cash prize of € 4,000 will be shared by Paola Ferretti, for her translation of Sette poemi by Marina Tsvetaeva (Giulio Einaudi Editori, 2019), and Fabio Pedone, for Tra Parentesi by David Jones (Mondadori, 2018). Mario Corona to receive a special lifetime award.

The Jury was chaired by Francesco Zambon and made up of writers, critics, university professors and translation experts: Shaul Bassi, Franco Buffoni, Fabrizio Cambi, Alessandro Niero and Pietro Taravacci. For 2019 the customary prize for a young translator or for a first work will not be awarded. The Jury has, however, chosen to pay homage to the lifetime achievement of translator Mario Corona, who also competed in the Prize with a translation of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, published as Foglie d’erba in the Meridiani series by Mondadori.

Lastly, the jury will make a special mention of Ginevra Pugliese for her translation of a work by the Bosnian poet Faruk Sehic, Ritorno alla natura (Lietocolle).

Scholarship
During the awards ceremony, a residential scholarship will be awarded to Alessia Zinnari, who was selected by the same judging panel from the various applications received. The grant, worth 6,000 euros, is reserved for graduates, PhD students and postgraduate researchers, both Italian and foreign, under the age of 35, who present a research project on the literary collections held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The scholarship includes residence at the Vittore Branca International Center for the Study of Italian Culture.