Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska and Teresa Tyszowiecka blasK! with the T. Boy-Zelenski Awards of the President of Gdansk.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for translations went to Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska, a translator of English and American literature, whose greatest achievements include translations of novels by Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, George Eliot and William Faulkner. Teresa Tyszowiecka blasK! received the Award for translating the book “The African Roots of UFO” by Anthony Joseph from English. The prizes are PLN 50,000 in the lifetime achievement category and PLN 30,000 for the translation. The Award statuettes were presented symbolically, in the online form, during the “Found in Translation” festival organized by the City Culture Institute.

The Award Committee, consisting of Carlos Marrodán Casas, Jakub Ekier, Dobromila Jankowska, Izabela Korybut-Daszkiewicz, Justyna Sobolewska, Marcin Szuster, Anna Wasilewska, selected the winner for lifetime achievement – Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska and for one translation – Teresa Tyszowiecka blasK!

– Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska’s greatest achievements include translations of novels by Jane Austen, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner. She translated literature for children and adolescents: incl. novels like “Lassie, come back!” by Eric Knight, Jack London’s “White Fang” or Gerald Durrell’s “My Family and Other Animals”. She was able to keep the individual diction of each translated writers, to transfer the colors and flavors of individual texts to polish culture, to reflect the historical, social and moral realities. Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska is also the author of the epic biographies of Jane Austen and the Brontë family – its chairman, Anna Wasilewska, read from the laudation of the Award Committee.

In the 1970s, Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska, then chairman of the Translators’ Club at the Polish Writers’ Union, initiated and co-organized the Seminar for Young Translators. It was an unprecedented initiative, born out of concern for generational continuity in a profession that needs someone else’s pencil and an eye that cannot be learned without tedious workshop exercises. For this seminar, the entire generation of literary translators is extremely grateful to the Laureate.

Teresa Tyszowiecka blasK! received the award in the translation category for translating into Polish a book written in English by the Trinidadian poet and writer Anthony Joseph, “The African Roots of UFOs”, published by the Foundation of Ha!art Corporation.

– The translator extremely suggestively captures the wild, trance-like rhythm of the original, brilliantly staging the multicolored, blurred, syncretic world of Caribbean culture. The text affects all the senses. The sound layer is delightful: vocal instrumentations, rhymes and rhythms. Island music sounds in the frisky translation language, and Polish slang turns out to be infinitely vivid and reveals surprising possibilities and use. The Caribbean people – whether it’s a killer straight from a fantasy comic book or a modest floor arranger – are dear to us, despite a different culture and completely different fortunes. The text is legible and understandable even for someone who has never encountered the Caribbean landscape – we read in the justification of the Award Committee’s verdict.

Nominations for the T. Boy-Zelenski Award of the President of Gdansk for the translation of one work in 2021, received as follows:

Wawrzyniec Brzozowski, “In the blooming girls’ shadow”, Marcel Proust, translation from French; Officyna Publishing House 2019.

Olga Czernikow, “Corvina, that is a book about ravens”, Petr Rákos, translation from the Czech language; Amaltea Publishing House 2019.

Leszek Engelking, “The Book of Kisses”, Jaroslav Seifert, translated from the Czech language. Officyna Publishing House, 2019.

Hanna Igalson-Tygielska, “Harsh Winter”, Raymond Queneau, translation from French; Literary Office 2019.

Maciej Plaza, “Ilussion Hill”, Arthur Machen, translated from English; State Publishing Institute 2020.

Teresa Tyszowiecka blasK!, “African roots of UFOs”, Anthony Joseph, translated from English; Foundation Ha!art Corporation 2020.

Ryszard Wojnakowski, “Masquerade of geniuses”, Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando, translation from German; State Publishing Institute 2019.

Biographies of the winners of the T. Boy-Zelenski Award of the President of Gdansk

Anna Przedpelska-Trzeciakowska was born in 1927 in Warsaw. Since 1943 she fought in the ranks of the Home Army, where she completed sanitary courses. During the Warsaw Uprising she worked as a nurse (field hospital at Piekna 24). She graduated from the school of Cecylia Plater-Zyberkowna, and then graduated in English philology at the University of Warsaw (1945–1950). After graduation, she started working at the Czytelnik publishing house, then worked as a freelancer, preparing translations of English classics and contemporary American prose. From December 17th, 1981, she becomes an employee of the Primatial’s Committee for Aid to Trapped People and Their Families. Member of the PEN Club, the Polish Writers’ Union (co-founder and Chairwoman of the Translators’ Club), and then the Polish Writers’ Association. Member of the PEN Management Board for three terms, head of the Writers in Prison Committee. The wife of prof. Witold Trzeciakowski, economist, minister in the government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

Teresa Tyszowiecka blasK! is an English translator. She has translated “Hollywood” by Charles Bukowski, “Hen Crowed” by Henry Miller, “Titanic Players” by Philip K. Dick, “Leviathan” from the “Illuminatus!” trilogy. by R. Shea and R. A. Wilson, “I Was Elieen” by Ottessa Moshfeg. She is also associated with the alternative music scene. Author of the “7 Main Bridges” and “MostArt” projects, which resulted in 20 site specific concerts based on the bridges of Warsaw. The author of the film “Acoustics”.

Gdansk Literary Meetings “Found in Translation” – Fantasy Edition are held in online form on April 15th-17th, 2021 in Gdansk. Responsible for the event’s program are literary translators Justyna Czechowska, Magdalena Heydel and Urszula Kropiwiec. All meetings and events, including the gala of presenting the T. Boy-Zelenski Award of the President of Gdansk, will be broadcasted live on City Culture Institute’s Facebook page, the “Found in Translation” Facebook page and on the City Culture Institute’s YouTube channel. The event is organized by the City Culture Institute, a cultural institution of the City of Gdansk.

Information: http://odnalezionewtlumaczeniu.pl/, https://www.facebook.com/odnalezionewtlumaczeniu

Media patrons and partners: Books. Reading magazine, TOK FM, PISMO magazine, Gazeta Wyborcza Trojmiasto, Co Jest Grane 24, Tygodnik Powszechny, Trojmiasto.pl.