Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize

The prize is awarded to a translation of a piece of modern Greek literature into English. The aim of the prize is to raise the profile of contemporary Greek literature and to bring the work of established and emerging Greek writers to the attention of the wider world.

Established in 1995 and administered by the MGSA, the Prize honors the memory of Elizabeth Constantinides (1932-1992). Constantinides received her Ph.D. in Greek and Latin from Columbia University in 1965, and taught Modern Greek language and literature at Queens College of the City University of New York from 1978 to 1992. The focus of her scholarly work was Alexandros Papadiamantis. She translated twelve short stories by Papadiamantis, published under the general title Tales from a Greek Island (Johns Hopkins University Press, (1987). Constantinides served on the Executive Committee of the Modern Greek Studies Association from 1985 to 1990, and was awarded the 1987 prize of the Society of Literary Translations in Athens, Greece.

The Prize Committee

The committee comprises five eligible members and is chaired by a member of the MGSA Executive Board. None of the other committee members may hold a seat on the Association’s Board. Membership in the MGSA is not mandatory. The selection of eligible members includes consideration of the need for representation of all genres on the committee. For each competition, a new committee is comprised and no committee member shall serve two consecutive terms.

Appointment of the committee takes place during and after the autumn MGSA Executive Board meeting preceding a Symposium year. At that meeting, the President of the MGSA shall ask members of the Board to appoint a committee chair and to make additional nominations of committee members to the chair of the Elizabeth Constantinides Translation Prize Committee. Using these nominations, it shall be the duty of the chair of the Committee to appoint the additional four members to the committee, with disciplinary representation as a basis for their selection. It is also advisable that gender and academic standing be taken into consideration when making these appointments.

Once a committee has been convened, members of the committee must review its procedures and establish an appropriate timetable for its work. It is advisable that the committee’s service begins on January 1 and that the competition is announced by February 1.

The prize is announced at the next MGSA Symposium, and the committee remains operative until a subsequent committee is appointed after the autumn Executive Board meeting, preceding the following competition year. The chairperson of the committee is a voting member of the committee. Committee members are not permitted to submit their own work while serving on the Elizabeth Constantinides Translation Prize Committee.

Liana Thedoratou (Chair), Elsa Amanatidou, Athena Athanasiou, Dimitris Kargiotis, and Olga Taxidou are the committee members for 2011 .


Guidelines

Next Deadline for Submissions: April 1, 2013.

  • The translation must be from modern Greek into English.
  • The Greek original must be imaginative literature--that is, a novel, a poem, a play, or a short story.
  • The Greek original must be published.
  • The English translation may be either published or unpublished.
  • Only one submission per translator is allowed.
  • A submission should not exceed thirty pages in length, and this restriction also applies to lengthy novels and plays. A thirty-page chapter from a novel or a thirty-page act from a play is acceptable.
  • A submission must be typed, double spaced, printed on one side only of 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper.
  • The translator’s name must not appear on the translation itself.
  • A cover letter should include the name of the author of the translated work, the title of the translated work, the name of the translator, the postal address of the translator, and the e-mail address of the translator--if available.
  • Each translator must submit a brief statement (no more than one page in length) explaining why the particular Greek text was chosen and what goals and/or principles were employed in the process of translation.
  • Translators are not required to be members of the MGSA when submitting their work.
  • Five copies of the English translation and five copies of the Greek original must be mailed to the address below.
  • Please note that Faxed and e-mailed submissions are not acceptable. No material will be returned.
Selection Process

The submissions undergo blind review. The names of the contestants are placed in a sealed envelope by the MGSA Executive Director. Each committee member independently reads and rates the translations entered in the competition and communicates his/her evaluation to the chairperson of the committee.

Although it is difficult, and, perhaps, inadvisable, to establish streamlined criteria for translation, as much depends on the writing style and the degree of difficulty of the original, the committee will evaluate: fidelity to the original; command of English (structure, diction, and nuance); importance of the work as a representative sample of a literary period or movement or of the work of an individual writer; and the translator’s ability to provide cues (by way of footnotes, end notes, or introduction) when deemed necessary.

The evaluation results of each committee member should reflect a rank-ordering of the submissions. Once a decision has been made, the chair announces the winner of the competition to the MGSA Executive Director and to the members of the Elizabeth Constantinides Translation Prize Committee. All entrants are notified in writing by the chair of the committee. The award is publicly made at the next scheduled MGSA Symposium and the MGSA Executive Director mails the $500 award to the winner.