Shortlist Vondel Translation Prize 2025

This triennial prize, sponsored by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, awards the best English-language translation of a Dutch-language literary or cultural-historical work with a cash prize of €5,000. The winner will be announced during an award ceremony, organised by the British Society of Authors, in London on Wednesday 12 February 2025.

The jury on the nominees: "Five extraordinary books. Five remarkable translations. A seminal work on the devastating impact of slavery, a twisted first-person account of sexual obsession, a deliciously irreverent coming-of-age novel, a fiercely literary exploration of childhood trauma, an unsparing look at the internet’s dark underbelly. All five books have an unforgettable first-person narrator whose voice has been rendered in English with authenticity, immediacy, and an unerring sense of timing. The shortlisted translators have tackled these idiosyncratic works and challenging themes with exceptional skill, unflinching integrity, and above all, flair."

The five nominated translations are:

• David McKay for We Slaves of Suriname by Anton de Kom (Polity)
  From the jury report: "A groundbreaking classic that bears sobering witness to the horrors of slavery under Dutch colonial rule, Anton de Kom’s We Slaves of Suriname feels fresh and raw in David McKay’s vivid and supple translation. Each register, from lush landscape description to tragic storytelling and from burning invective to impassioned rallying cry, is handled with ease and authority. Epic in scope, this remarkably concise book traces the legacy of multiple hypocrisies and cruelties to devastating effect."

• Michele Hutchison for My Heavenly Favourite by Lucas Rijneveld (Graywolf Press)
  From the jury report: "Lucas Rijneveld’s lyrical, relentless and deeply unsettling second novel is narrated by the 49-year-old abuser of a teenage girl. A Boschian work that fuses the shocking and repulsive to exquisite descriptive details, My Heavenly Favourite represents a formidable challenge for the translator. Michele Hutchison’s astonishingly fluid rendering of Rijneveld’s endless, undulating sentences drags the helpless reader dazzled and dismayed to the very last page."

• Kristen Gehrman for The History of My Sexuality by Tobi Lakmaker (Granta)
  From the jury report: "Tobi Lakmaker’s The History of My Sexuality combines deliciously brisk storytelling with the irreverent observation and punchy delivery of a killer stand-up routine. Paying gleeful homage to Salinger, the novel’s deftly spliced chronology sidesteps sentimentality and taps into unexpected seams of loss and heartbreak in its final section. Kristen Gehrman brings Lakmaker’s bold narrative voice memorably to life with verve and irresistible comic timing."

• Sam Garrett for Falling Is Like Flying by Manon Uphoff (Pushkin Press)
  From the jury report: "Manon Uphoff’s novel-cum-memoir is a brilliantly uncowed account of a childhood blighted by incest. In Sam Garrett’s translation, Uphoff’s gift for specificity sparkles. Enriched by judicious use of literary reference, Falling is Like Flying delivers an intense, writerly treatment of a shocking and painful subject. Garrett’s formidable range deals nimbly with the mix of registers in this surprisingly playful and extremely powerful work."

• Emma Rault for We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets (Picador/Harper Collins UK)
  From the jury report: "Hanna Bervoets’ gripping novel gives the reader a disturbing glimpse into the dark side of social media and the seductive nature of conspiracy theories. Emma Rault portrays the main character – a moderator for a social-media company – with such energy that her translation throbs with life. Thanks to her originality, gutsy approach and convincingly colloquial style, We Had to Remove This Post is a lively, if disquieting, read."

All nominated translations were published in the period 2021-2024.

The jury for the Vondel Translation Prize 2025 consists of David Doherty (literary translator and recipient of the Vondel Translation Prize 2021), Claire Lowden (writer and literary reviewer) and Susan Massotty (literary translator).