The Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) prize for the best translation of a Romanian literary work was awarded to translator Inger Johansson for ‘The Correspondence of Marcel Proust’ by Mihail Sebastian, published by Bokforlaget Faethon, Sweden.

The book was published in 2024 with the support from the ICR through the Translation and Publication Support programme.

The award was bestowed at the Iasi International Festival of Literature and Translation (FILIT) on Sunday, 26 October, at the ‘Vasile Alecsandri’ Theatre in Iasi and announced by ICR President Liviu Jicman, according to a ICR release sent to AGERPRES on Monday.

The ICR jury was made up of Cosmin Ciotlos – writer, literary critic, essayist and associate professor at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Bucharest; Paul Cernat – literary critic, publicist and associate professor at the Faculty of Letters, the University of Bucharest and George Volceanov – English specialist and one of Romania’s most appreciated contemporary translators.

In its selection process, the jury considered key criteria such as the lexical and stylistic difficulty of the translated work, the book’s impact in the target market and the translator’s portfolio.

‘This year’s prize is awarded to Inger Johansson, an extraordinary expert in the Romanian language and literature and an outstanding translator who, over the past decades, has made a remarkable contribution to promoting and popularizing Romanian literature in Sweden. Inger Johansson has proven herself a formidable expert of Mircea Cartarescu’s work (being among the very few translators to attempt ‘The Levant ‘ in a foreign language), as well as of recently canonized authors such as Max Blecher and throughout her prolific literary translation career, she has worked with both contemporary successful authors and those whose legacy remains unaltered by time. Including another of Inger Johansson’s favorite authors, namely Mihail Sebastian. It is gratifying to see a text that restores Mihail Sebastian not only to his place as a playwright, novelist and a canonical diarist, but also as an exegete of one of the great writers of world literature. The jury was impressed by the warm reception this translation received in Swedish cultural circles, thanks to the skill and talent of Ms. Inger Johansson,’ the jury explained in its reasoning fro this year’s winner.

Born in 1947, Inger Kristina Johansson is the president of the Literary Translators section of the Swedish Writers’ Union. She holds a Master’s degree in Arts in Romanian Philology from the Lund University and has translated over 25 works from Romanian into Swedish, including books by Max Blecher, Mircea Cartarescu, Paul Celan, Gianina Carbunariu, Horia Lovinescu, Norman Manea, Gabriela Melinescu, Ioana Nicolaie, Mihail Sebastian and Nichita Stanescu.

In 2024, she was awarded ‘The Cultural Merit’ Order, in rank of Officer, Category F – ‘Promotion of Culture’ by the President of Romania, in 2017, she received the Excellence Award for Romanian Literary Translations from the Romanian Cultural Institute in Stockholm, along with numerous other international prizes.

The Romanian Cultural Institute Prize for the best translation of a Romanian book into a foreign language was established in 2022 and seeks to recognize the global impact of the Romanian literature through the exemplary work of translators, outstanding ambassadors of Romanian books abroad.

At the first edition, the award went to Marian Ochoa de Eribe and Eta Hrubaru for their Spanish translation of ‘Antologie de poezie’ by Mircea Cartarescu; in 2023, the prize was awarded to Sean Cotter for translating Cartarescu’s novel ‘Solenoid; in 2024, it was awarded ex aequo to Bruno Mazzoni, for the Italian translation of Ana Blandiana’s poetry volume ‘Variations on a Given Theme’ published by Donzelli Editore, Italy and Steinar Lone, for the Norwegian translation of Cartarescu’s ‘Solenoid’ at Solum Bokvennen Publishing House, Norway. AGERPRES (RO – writing by: Daniel Popescu; EN – writing by: Rodica State)