39th Annual Translation Prize Awards Ceremony
39th Annual Translation Prize Awards Ceremony
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Honoring Excellence in French-to-English Translation
The 39th Annual Translation Prize Awards Ceremony took place on June 25th, 2025 at the New York Society Library in New York City. The evening served to celebrate this year’s winning translators for their outstanding French-to-English translations, in fiction and nonfiction. Winners received awards totaling $20,000 thanks to the generous support of the Florence Gould Foundation. Acknowledgement was also bestowed to our finalists for their translations of exceptional quality. The Foundation was honored to welcome members of the Prize’s jury, as well as keynote speaker Paul Leclerc, Past Director of Columbia Global Centers – Paris, President Emeritus of The New York Public Library, and President Emeritus of Hunter College.
About the Keynote Speaker:
Paul LeClerc is the grandson of French Canadian immigrants and has enjoyed a lifelong connection to France. LeClerc was first a professor of French language and literature at Union College, then moved to senior administrative positions in the City University of New York, including President of Hunter College. He next served a record-breaking term of close to eighteen years as President and CEO of The New York Public Library, after which he returned to Columbia as the Director of Reid Hall, the university’s Global Center in Paris. He has received eleven honorary doctorates, as well as the French Legion of Honor (Officier) and Spanish Order of Isabella la Católica (Commander). LeClerc was named by the French Minister of Culture to serve on the Conseil Scientifique of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) and was appointed by President Clinton to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
About the Winners:
Fiction Winner: Lazer Lederhendler, for his translation of The Hollow Beast by Christophe Bernard (Biblioasis)
Lazer Lederhendler is a veteran literary translator based in Montreal and specializing in contemporary Québécois fiction and nonfiction. He is a three-time winner of both the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Cole
Foundation Translation Prize of the Quebec Writers Federation. His rendering of Nicolas Dickner’s novel Nikolski (Random House Canada) won the 2010 Canada Reads competition. His translations have twice been finalists for the Scotiabank-Giller Prize.
Nonfiction Winner: John Lambert, for his translation of V13: Chronicle of a Trial by Emmanuel Carrère (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
A native of Vancouver, John Lambert has translated Monsieur, Reticence and Self-Portrait Abroad by Jean- Philippe Toussaint, Change and Monique Escapes (forthcoming) by Édouard Louis, as well as Emmanuel Carrère’s Limonov, The Kingdom, 97,196 Words and Yoga. He lives with his wife and family in Nantes in north-western France.
Click below to read more about the 2025 winners and finalists, including exclusive interviews.