First Brockway Prize awarded to Francis R. Jones

The first edition of the Brockway Prize has been awarded to Francis R. Jones for his achievements as a translator of Dutch poetry into English. Francis R. Jones (b. 1955) translates poetry from various European countries and has won several international translators’ prizes.

Jones has made his mark in the context of Dutch poetry primarily with Against the Forgetting, a wide selection from the work of Hans Faverey (English publication in 1994, American publication in 2004). He studied at the universities of Cambridge and Sarajevo, among others, and currently holds a position as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, where he specializes in translation research.

The Brockway Prize was set up by the Nederlands Literair Productie- en Vertalingenfonds (NLPVF) to honour the work of translators of Dutch poetry into another language. The biennial prize, named after the poet and translator James Brockway, comprises a sum of € 5,000. Each edition of the prize will be oriented to a different language area. English was the target language of this first edition. The jury, consisted of Willem van Toorn, poet and translator, Peter Bergsma, translator and director of the Amsterdam Translators’ House, and Christopher MacLehose, publisher at the British Harvill Press.

The poet and translator James Brockway died on 15 December 2000. His translations allowed readers of English access to the poetry of Rutger Kopland, Hans Lodeizen, M. Vasalis, Gerrit Achterberg, and many other Dutch-language poets. In 1966 he received the Martinus Nijhoff Prize for his achievements as a translator, and in 1997 he was knighted for the same reason. Brockway left half of his legacy to the NLPVF, and this is now used to stimulate the translation of Dutch poetry.
More info: www.nlpvf.nl/pers/

Published: July 9, 2005 news | poetry