Lecturer Agata Orzeszek awarded the National Award for Best Translation
Agata Orzeszek, retired lecturer in the UAB Department of Translation and Interpreting & East Asian Studies, received the National Award for Best Translation for her Spanish translation of The Books of Jacob, by Olga Tokarczuk. Orzeszek worked on the translation with Ernesto Rubio, who holds a BA in English Studies from the University of Valencia and an MA in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies from the UAB.
This prize is awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture for the translation of literary works into any of the languages of Spain which, in the opinion of the specialists who make up the jury, have been outstanding among those published for the first time in the previous year. The prize is worth 30,000 euros and the jury took into account “the admirable way in which the enormous challenges posed by the translation of what is considered to be the Polish writer's greatest work, a milestone of enormous contribution to the Spanish culture and language”. According to the jury, Orzeszek and Rubio “have been able to weave with excellence the complex and multifaceted text of Tokarzcuk, with an infinite number of layers and a difficult but lyrical style, without losing the richness of the original, while at the same time transferring the language of 18th century Poland without falling into anachronisms”.
Orzeszek studied Neophilology with a specialisation in Spanish Studies at the University of Warsaw. She holds a PhD in translation and interpreting from the UAB, where she has lectured since 1999. In her professional career she has translated numerous works by Ryszard Kapuściński, as well as other authors such as Jerzy Andrzejewski, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński and Ivan S. Turgenev. In addition, Orzeszek is the author of El hombre superfluo. Un paseo crítico por la literatura rusa del s. XIX de la mano del arquetipo héroe (Edicions UAB), Una casa mágica (Timun Mas) and Viajes con Ryszard Kapuściński (Edicions UAB).