Shadow IFFP Bye, Hi “Shadow MANBIP ” the new tranaslation prize

 

There was an announcement today about a change in two big prizes in the world of translated fiction ,in a way become one the merging of Independent foreign fiction prize with the Man Booker international prize . Sees the prize move forward similar to the current IFFP , with Boyd Tonkin Chairing the new Man book international prize in its first year . A new yearly prize with a much bigger prize in terms of money than either prize had but for a single book not a  body of work like the current IFFP is . I am sad to lose the old version of the man prize which saw the writer listed for a body of work . It is just a shame people never really got this , maybe we could done a shadow for it but that has pasted . Now talikg shadowing I will continue to shadow this prize like I had the old Independent foreign fiction prize over the last four years  . I hope to be more involved in shadowing than this . I think in long run this is a sign of how translated fiction has grown in the last few years . It would be nice for two prize , but for me the renaming and connection to the booker prize if promoted right could be a great turn for PR . The IFFP connection to one english paper maybe lead to less coverage in other papers .I’d love more prize thou this is a step forward and if it works maybe could be a platform for smaller awards like the French book prize  the Goncourt has done over the last few years . Say  a prize for best small published book , best retranslation and maybe one for body of work like a judges prize . So we in the UK get a big prize for translated fiction let’s get behind it and promote it !!! I will be with the first shadow man booker international prize next year .