Summary of the Second Edition of Babylon (2015)

The second edition of the Babylon Best Young Translator Award, a partner project of the EU Delegation in the country and the Macedonian Translators Association, was announced on 26 September 2014, as part of the celebration of the European Day of Languages.

Young translators from five source languages—English, Bulgarian, Italian, French, and Spanish—into two target languages—Macedonian and Turkish—entered the competition for the second Babylon Best Young Translator Award. The entries went through three selection rounds and, according to the final scores, the Organising Committee awarded the translation from Italian into Macedonian of the short story “Se sei solo le figuracce non esistono” by Niccolò Ammaniti, authored by Kristijan Fidanoski. The award was officially presented at the EU Info Centre in Skopje, on 28 September 2015. As the differences among the top translation were truly minor, the Organising Committee, as last year, decided to give honourable mentions to the translators placed second and third: to Zorica Petkoska, for her translation from English into Macedonian of an excerpt from The Guts by Roddy Doyle, and to Sanja Tanevska for her translation from Spanish into Macedonian of an excerpt from Wabi-Sabi by Fracesc Miralles. This year a special honourable mention was given to Zorica Petkoska and Nikola Ǵelinčeski for their creativity in finding translation solution into Macedonian for their translation of an excerpt from Railsea by China Tom Miéville.

The third edition of the Babylon Best Young Translator Award was announced at the award ceremony.

The Macedonian Translators Association presented the Babylon Best Young Translator Award at the Third International Conference of the International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters (IAPTI) in Bordeaux, France, on 5 and 6 September 2015. After the presentation, the Association was invited to apply for membership to the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations (CEATL) and to present the award before the delegates at the general annual meeting that is to take place in Barcelona in June 2016.

The Babylon Organising Committee members and representatives of the EU Delegation in the country presented the results of the second edition of the award in front of their colleagues in Brussels.