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French author Alice Zeniter wins 2022 Dublin Literary Award
French author Alice Zeniter and Irish translator Frank Wynne have won the 2022 Dublin Literary Award, sponsored by Dublin City Council for the novel The Art of Losing.
The award is the world's largest prize for a single novel published in English.
Alice Zeniter wins E75,000 and Frank Wynne E25,000. Frank was a previous winner in 2002, as translator of Atomised by Michel Houellebecq. The Art of Losing is the 10th novel in translation to win the Dublin Literary Prize.
The winning title was announced in Dublin today as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin which runs at Merrion Square Park until next Sunday.
Lord Mayor and Patron of the Award, Alison Gilliland said:
"With its themes of colonisation and immigration, The Art of Losing, which follows three generations of an Algerian family from the 1950s to the present day and highlights how literature can increase our understanding of the world."
Accepting her award, winner Alice Zeniter said:
"When I was writing The Art of Losing, I was almost certain that it was a niche novel. This book's life, even five years after its release, keeps surprising me. I am really happy and thrilled that the Dublin Literary Award shows me today that this story can be shared with readers from different countries, readers who grew up outside the French post-colonial Empire. Readers that, maybe, had never thought about Algeria before opening the book. How crazy is that?"
Translator Frank Wynne said:
"In a very real sense, I owe my career as a literary translator to the Dublin Literary Award, a prize I cherish because it makes no distinction between English and translated fiction, treating authors and translators as co-weavers of the endless braid of literature."
Alice Zeniter and Frank Wynne will appear at ILFDublin, for an in-depth conversation about the novel, with Michael Cronin, Professor of French and Director of the Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation in Trinity College Dublin, this evening (Monday 23rd May) at 6pm in Merrion Square Park (Speranza stage).
Copies of the winning title are available to borrow from Dublin City Libraries and from public libraries throughout Ireland. Readers can also borrow the winning novel on BorrowBox in eBook format. The French version will also be available to borrow from Dublin City Libraries.
