Thursday 8 September 2005 19.30, Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB Tickets £6/£4 concs. and Poetry Society members Wine reception with readings from the 2005 shortlist, followed by the announcement of the winner of the 2005 Popescu Prize. Tickets and information are available from the Poetry Society Tel. 020 7420 9895, e-mail marketing@poetrysociety.org.uk Sponsored by the Ratiu Foundation UK Organised by the Poetry Society

PRESS RELEASE

The Shortlist for the Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation 2005 announced! The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation was set up to acknowledge the extraordinary talent of a young Romanian translator, Corneliu M Popescu, who had beautifully translated the work of one of Romania’s leading poets, Mihai Eminescu, into English. Unfortunately Popescu died aged 19, in the 4 March 1977 earthquake in Romania, and the prize is a tribute to this prodigiously talented young man and indeed translators all over Europe. The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation is one of the cultural projects initiated by Ion Ratiu in the ‘80s. The Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation, founded by the Poetry Society and the Ratiu Foundation UK, highlights the wealth of excellent poetry translations available. The prize is awarded every two years. The success of the first Popescu prize in 2003 went way beyond the judges’ expectations and the Popescu Prize 2005 has exceeded expectations again with over 70 collections being submitted. Judges Alan Brownjohn and Dr Mike Phillips are now pleased to announce the shortlist for the Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation 2005. They are:

• Love at the Full (Lucien Becker, tr. Christopher Pilling - Flambard) France
• Cuceriri Disperate / Desperate Conquests (Carmen Firan, tr. Julian Semilian - Editura ICR) Romania
• Absurd Athlete (Yannis Kondos, tr. David Connolly - Arc Publications) Greece
• The Night of Akhenaton (Ágnes Nemes Nagy, tr. George Szirtes - Bloodaxe Books) Hungary
• A Voice (Anzhelina Polonskaya, tr. Andrew Wachtel - Northwestern University Press) Russia
• The Bridge (Marin Sorescu, tr. Adam J Sorkin and Lidia Vianu, Bloodaxe Books) Romania

The Popescu Prize, as judge Alan Brownjohn says, is important because it “is intended to encourage translation, translators and all publishers who recognise the value of the art.” Peter Lewis of Flambard Press explains further “anything that encourages the reading public in this country to take notice of what is happening in other literatures is welcome, which is why the very few awards for literary translation are so important. They are not going to garner a tenth of the attention and publicity that awaits the Booker short list, or even long list, but they perform a really valuable reminder that there is an abundance of literary riches out there if we bother to take off our blinkers.” For further information about the Poetry Society visit: http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk . For more information about the Ratiu Foundation UK visit: http://www.ratiufamilyfoundation.com .