The Price of Susanna Roth

International Translation Competition The Susanna Roth Prize is a long-term project to support the young generation of foreign Bohemists, emerging translators, or anyone under the age of 40 who possesses sufficient knowledge of Czech, has translation ambitions, a competitive spirit, and an affinity for contemporary Czech literature .

As part of the competition, a prestigious award is given for the best translated text of a prose work by a contemporary Czech author (from Czech into world languages), with the aim and strength of the competition being, in addition to continuous work in the field of translation, also support for the presentation of contemporary Czech literary creation to a wider interested audience beyond the borders of the Czech Republic.

Contact

Czech Centres: Anna Hrabáčková, hrabackova@czechcentres.cz

History of the Competition

The foundations of the project were established by the Czech Centres and the literary section of the Arts Institute – Theatre Institute (IDU) in 2014 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bohumil Hrabal , when selected stories of this renowned Czech author were translated in foreign territories (under the coordination of local Czech Centres). In 2015, the competition project transformed into the Susanna Roth Prize, the first two editions of which were co-organised by IDU. Since 2017, the Czech Centres have announced and co-organised the competition with the Czech Literary Centre , the section of the Moravian Library .

Susanna Roth

Susanna Roth (1950–1997) was a prominent Swiss translator, Bohemist, literary critic, and scholar. She began learning Czech in the early 1970s in Zurich, and in 1972 she received a scholarship at Charles University in Prague. In 1992, she established the Czech branch of the Pro Helvetia foundation in Prague, later representing this foundation in Bratislava; she organized cultural exchanges, facilitated scholarships, exhibitions, concerts, and theatre tours. In 1993, she became the first laureate of the Premia Bohemica Prize, awarded to foreign translators (Bohemists) who contributed to the dissemination of Czech literature in their native language.