John Florio Prize

The John Florio Prize for Italian translation is awarded by the Society of Authors, ^[1] with the co-sponsorship of the Italian Cultural Institute and Arts Council England. Named after the Tudor Anglo-Italian writer-translator John Florio, the prize was established in 1963. As of 1980 it is awarded biannually for the best English translation of a full-length work of literary merit and general interest from Italian. ^[2]

Winners and shortlistees

1960–1979 annual run

Year	Translator	Work	Reference
1963	Donata Origo	The Deserter by Giuseppe Dessi
	Eric Mosbacher	Hekura by Fosco Maraini
1964	Angus Davidson	More Roman Tales by Alberto Moravia
	H. S. Vere-Hodge	The Odes of Dante
	Professor E. R. Vincent	A Diary of One of Garibaldi's Thousand by Giuseppe Cesare Abba	[3] [4]
1965	W. H. Darwell	Dongo: The Last Act by Pier Luigi Bellini delle Stelle & Urbano Lazzaro
1966	Stuart Woolf	The Truce by Primo Levi
	Jane Grigson and Father Kenelm Foster	The Columns of Infamy of Crime and Punishments by Cesare Beccaria
1967	Isabel Quigly	The Transfers by Silvano Ceccherini
1968	Muriel Grindrod	The Popes in the 20th Century by Carlo Falconi
	Raleigh Trevelyan	The Outlaws by Luigi Meneghello
1969	Sacha Rabinovitch	Francis Bacon: from Magic to Science by Paolo Rossi
	William Weaver	A Violent Life by Pier Pasolini
1970	Angus Davidson	On Neoclassicism by Mario Praz
1971	William Weaver	The Heron by Giorgio Bassani
	William Weaver	Time and the Hunter by Italo Calvino
1972	Patrick Creagh	Selected Poems by Giuseppe Ungaretti
1973	Bernard Wall	Wrestling with Christ by Luigi Santucci
1974	Stephen M. Hellman	Letters from Inside the Italian Communist Party by Maria Antonietta Macciocchi
1975	Cormac O’Cuilleanain	Cagliostro by Roberto Gervaso
1976	Frances Frenaye	The Forests of Norbio by Giuseppe Dessi
1977	Ruth Feldman & Brian Swann	Shema, Collected Poems of Primo Levi
1979	Quintin Hoare	Selections from Political Writings 1921–26 by Antonio Gramsci

1980–2004 biennial winners

Year	Writer	Work	Reference
1980	Julian Mitchell	Henry IV by Pirandello
1982	Christopher Holme	Ebla: An Empire Rediscovered by Paolo Matthiae
1984	Bruce Penman	China (The moments of civilisation) by Gildo Fossati
1986	Avril Bardoni	The Wine Dark Sea by Leonardo Sciascia
1988	J. G. Nichols	The Colloquies by Guido Gozzano
1990	Patrick Creagh	Danube by Claudio Magris
	Patrick Creagh	Blind Argus by Gesualdo Bufalino
1992	William Weaver	The Dust Roads of Monferrato by Rosetta Loy
	Tim Parks	Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy
1994	Tim Parks	The Road to San Giovanni by Italo Calvino
1996	Emma Rose	His Mother's House by Marta Morazzoni
1998	Joseph Farrell	Take-off by Daniele del Giudice
2000	Martin McLaughlin	Why Read the Classics? by Italo Calvino
2002	Stephen Sartarelli	Prince of the Clouds by Gianni Riotta
	Alastair McEwen	Senior Service by Carlo Feltrinelli
2004	Howard Curtis	Coming Back by Edoardo Albinati

2006–present biennial winners, runners-up, and shortlisted works

= winner

Year	Writer	Work	Result	Reference
2006	Carol O’Sullivan and Martin Thom	Kuraj by Silvia Di Natale	Winner
	Aubrey Botsford	The Ballad of the Low Lifes by Enrico Remmert	Runner-up
2008	Peter Robinson	The Greener Meadow by Luciano Erba	Winner
	Alastair McEwen	Turning Back the Clock by Umberto Eco	Runner-up
2010	Jamie McKendrick	The Embrace: Selected Poems by Valerio Magrelli	Winner
	Abigail Asher	The Natural Order of Things by Andrea Canobbio	Runner-up
2012	Anne Milano Appel	Scent of a Woman by Giovanni Arpino	Winner
	Howard Curtis	In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda	Commended
	Shaun Whiteside	Stabat Mater by Tiziano Scarpa	Commended
2014	Patrick Creagh	Memory of the Abyss by Marcello Fois	Winner
	Cristina Viti	A Life Apart by Mariapia Veladiano	Commended
2016	Jamie McKendrick	Archipelago by Antonella Anedda	Winner
	Richard Dixon	Numero Zero by Umberto Eco	Commended
2018	Gini Alhadeff	I Am the Brother of XX by Fleur Jaeggy	Winner
	Cristina Viti	Stigmata by Gëzim Hajdari	Runner-up
	Jamie McKendrick	Within the Walls by Giorgio Bassani	Shortlisted
	Mario Petrucci	Xenia by Eugenio Montale	Shortlisted
	Cristina Viti	The World Saved by Kids by Elsa Morante	Shortlisted
2020	Jhumpa Lahiri	Trick by Domenico Starnone	Winner
	Jenny McPhee	The Kremlin Ball by Curzio Malaparte	Runner-up
	Anne Milano Appel	A Devil Comes to Town by Paolo Maurensig	Shortlisted
	Ekin Oklap	Flowers Over the Inferno by Ilaria Tuti	Shortlisted
	Taije Silverman and Marina Della Putta Johnson	Selected Poems of Giovanni Pascoli by Giovanni Pascoli	Shortlisted
	Howard Curtis	Soul of the Border by Matteo Righetto	Shortlisted
2022	Nicholas Benson and Elena Coda	My Karst and My City by Scipio Slataper	Winner
	J Ockenden	Snow, Dog, Foot by Claudio Morandini	Runner-up
	Tim Parks	The House on The Hill and The Moon and the Bonfires by Cesare Pavese	Runner-up
	Elena Pala	The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi	Shortlisted
	Stash Luczkwi	Without Ever Reaching the Summit by Paolo Cognetti	Shortlisted
	Stephen Twilley	Diary of a Foreigner in Paris by Curzio Malaparte	Shortlisted

2024 judges

Maame Blue

Maame Blue is a creative writing tutor and author of the novel Bad Love, which won the 2021 Betty Trask award. Her short stories have been published in three anthologies and her writing has appeared in Writers Mosaic, Refinery29 and The Author Magazine. Her second novel The Rest Of You will be published by Amistad (US) and Verve Books (UK) in Autumn 2024.

Jamie McKendrick

Jamie McKendrick was born in Liverpool in 1955. He is the author of six collections of poetry, including The Marble Fly, winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection and a Poetry Book Society Choice; Ink Stone, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Crocodiles & Obelisks, shortlisted for the Forward Prize. Out There won the Hawthornden Prize. An earlier selection of his poems was published as Sky Nails, and he is editor of 20th-Century Italian Poems. The Embrace, his translations of Valerio Magrelli’s poetry, won the Oxford-Weidenfeld and the John Florio prizes.

Sandra Silipo

Sandra Silipo has been studying and working with languages for over 30 years. She has a BA in Classics, an MA in Translation and an MA in Applied Linguistics. She has worked for the language industry in a variety of roles: as an associate lecturer and author for the Open University, as a free-lance translator, as a principal examiner for the IBO, as a language teacher and as a teachers’ trainer. Her profession has taught her that every word and every language tells a story. She loves to spend her time listening to those stories, and retelling them.

References

1. "Past winners - John Florio Prize (Italian)". The Society of Authors. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
2. "John Florio Prize (Italian)". The Society of Authors. Archived from the original on 17 August 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
3. London : Oxford University Press, 1962
4. Professor Eric Reginald Pearce Vincent; Bletchley Park