Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators

The prestigious Anthea Bell Translation Competition, organised by Queen's College Oxford, challenges students to engage in the art of creative translation. Participants are given a text in a foreign language and asked to produce an imaginative and accurate translation in English, capturing not only the meaning but also the style and nuances of the original work. This competition celebrates linguistic skills and encourages young translators to explore the rich possibilities of language.

Anthea Bell OBE (1936–2018) ranked among the leading literary translators of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her work from German, French and Danish into English encompassed the writings of Kafka, Freud, E.T.A. Hoffmann, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Georges Simenon, W.G. Sebald, René Goscinny, Cornelia Funke and many others.

She won numerous literary awards, some of them several times, and was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2015.

Keep your eyes peeled to find out who the winner will be!

We'd love for you to get involved and hopefully be able to share more success stories next year!