We’re thrilled to share the news that Elizabeth Harris’s translation of For Isabel by Antonio Tabucchi has won the 2018 Italian Prose in Translation Award. The Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA) recognizes the importance of contemporary Italian prose and promotes the translation of Italian works into English.

On For Isabel judges Geoffrey Brock, Peter Constantine, and Sarah Stickney wrote:

“Tabucchi creates an intricate web that connects past to present, dream-life to waking. The book is filled with evocative images that seem to float free of mere plot constraints…Harris carries the delicate magic of consciousness from Italian into English with deceptive ease. She works with admirable precision to capture the voices of the different speakers and the details of the shifting context, yet she never sacrifices the dreamy texture of the writing.”

Elizabeth Harris’s translations from Italian include Mario Rigoni Stern’s novel Giacomo’s Seasons (Autumn Hill Books), Giulio Mozzi’s story collection This Is the Garden (Open Letter Books), and Antonio Tabucchi’s novel Tristano Dies (also with Archipelago Books). Her awards include a 2013 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant and the 2016 National Translation Award for Prose, both for Tabucchi’s Tristano Dies. She lives with her family in a small town in Wisconsin, along the Mississippi.