Cold Nights of Childhood wins 2024 NBCC Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize
Maureen Freely's translation of Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü has been awarded the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize by the National Book Critics Circle, which honors the best book of any genre translated into English and published in the United States.
As committee chair Mandana Chaffa remarked, “Maureen Freely’s evocative translation from Turkish strikingly depicts the haunting interior life of an unsettled young woman seeking happiness and self-determination against the backdrop of a swiftly changing Turkish society.”
In her acceptance speech, Freely thanked Özlü "for giving us—for leaving us—this book. Since its first publication in 1980, it has inspired two generations of Turkish women to step out of their gendered straitjackets and live by their own lights, embracing beauty where they find it.”
Published six years before her untimely death at 43, Cold Nights of Childhood helped cement Tezer Özlü's status as the ''melancholy princess'' of Turkish literature’s. Set across the rambling orchards of a childhood in the Turkish provinces and the smoke-filled cafes of European capitals, Cold Nights of Childhood offers a sensual, unflinching portrayal of a woman’s sexual encounters and psychological struggle, staging a clash between unbridled feminine desire and repressive, patriarchal society.
The awards, which were announced at a ceremony at the New School in New York City on Thursday, March 21, are among the most prestigious literary prizes in the United States. The finalists and their independent presses were:
The Last Pomegranate Tree by Bachtyar Ali and translated by Kareem Abdulrahman (Archipelago Books)
Owlish by Dorothy Tse and translated by Natascha Bruce (Graywolf Press)
Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon and translated by Don Mee Choi (New Directions)
Zakwato & Loglêdou’s Peril by Azo Vauguy and translated by Todd Fredson (Action Books)
Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü and translated by Maureen Freely (Transit Books)
Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu and Translated by Tiffany Tsao (Feminist Press)
A video recording of the award ceremony can be found here.
About the NBCC Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize:
The National Book Critics Circle honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature.
The Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize seeks to highlight the artistic merit of literature in translation and recognize translators’ valuable work, which expands and enriches American literary culture by bringing world literature to English-language readers.