–FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–
New York City, New York, March 14, 2017—Jill Schoolman, founder and publisher of Archipelago Books, will be the recipient of the 2017 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature, Words Without Borders announced today.
Throughout her career as an editor and publisher, Schoolman has been a leading voice for the promotion of international literature. In 2003, she founded Archipelago Books with the mission to publish essential foreign-language texts in outstanding English translations. The list of international writers she has published includes such luminaries as Karl Ove Knausgaard, Elias Khoury, Scholastique Mukasonga, Miljenko Jergovic, Julio Cortázar, Antonio Tabucchi, Magdalena Tulli, and Wiesław Myśliwski.
“As physical and political borders close in around us, Jill Schoolman’s Archipelago Books offers a safe harbor to literary talent from around the world, infusing our bookshelves with vital and original work in translation,” said Words Without Borders Board Chair Samantha Schnee. “We are thrilled to celebrate her heroic efforts with this year’s Ottaway Award.”
The Ottaway Award will be presented to Ms. Schoolman at the annual Words Without Borders gala on November 1, 2017, in New York City.
Named in honor of the first chair of Words Without Borders, James H. Ottaway, Jr., the annual award recognizes an individual whose work and activism have supported WWB’s mission of promoting cultural understanding through the publication and promotion of international literature. Past awardees include the renowned editor Drenka Willen, the late editor and translator Carol Brown Janeway, and accomplished publishers Sara Bershtel and Barbara Epler.
The 2017 Words Without Borders gala will be held at Tribeca Three Sixty in New York City on November 1, 2017. For more information about the event or to sponsor a table, please contact giving@wordswithoutborders.org
Words Without Borders
Founded in 2003, Words Without Borders is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering global understanding through the translation, publication, and promotion of the finest contemporary international literature. To date WWB has published over 2,200 pieces of literature by writers from 132 countries, translated from 112 languages. Our publications and programs open doors for readers of English around the world to the multiplicity of viewpoints, richness of experience, and literary perspective on world events offered by writers in other languages. We seek to connect international literary writers to the general public, to students and educators, and to print and other media and to serve as a primary online location for a global literary conversation.
For additional information, please contact:
Contact: Savannah Whiting, Communications Coordinator
Organization Name: Words Without Borders
Telephone Number: (603) 630-7533
Email Address: press@wordswithoutborders.org
Website Address: www.wordswithoutborders.org
Twitter: @wwborders