MA Riikka P. Pulkkinen, a Finnish translator and literary scholar living in Athens, has been awarded Greek State’s annual Prize for Literary Translation in the category ‘Translation of a Work in Greek into a Foreign Language’. The awarded translation is an anthology of contemporary Greek poetry, Aurinkokello, published by Enostone kustannus and edited by Pulkkinen and Athiná Róssoglou. The award is a prestigious acknowledgement of Pulkkinen’s high-quality work in promoting the international visibility of contemporary Greek literature.
The Finnish Institute at Athens has the great pleasure of celebrating World Poetry Day (21.3.) by congratulating Pulkkinen for her success. It is indicative of her prolific and creative output as a translator that she was nominated in the aforementioned category not with one but two translations. Besides Aurinkokello, also the bilingual collection of Constantine Cavafy’s poems: Valitut Runot (Εκδόσεις Αιώρα) was nominated. Recently, Pulkkinen has also translated contemporary Greek novels (Kasvotusten. Nykykreikkalaisia novelleja, Enostone, 2021).
Besides Pulkkinen, we also congratulate the institute’s former administrator Maria Martzoukou, whose Greek translation of Mika Waltari’s novel Nuori Johannes was nominated in the category of ‘Translation of Foreign Literature into Greek’. Martzoukou’s translation O προσκυνητής. Τα νεανικά χρόνια του Ιωάννη Άγγελου (2022) was published by Εκδόσεις Καλέντη.
The Finnish Institute at Athens is proud of the two translators, both beloning to the institute’s circle. Congratulations for nominations to both Riikka and Maria, and especially to Riikka for the National Price!
More information on the nominations here and on the winners here.
