On the 6th of October, a recently opened the Insitute of Translation presented a new award "Read Russia" (Chitai Rossiyu) and announced the beginning of contenders' registration. 

      The new contest's officials said its main goals were the populisation of Russian-laguage books, the encouragement of translators, who translate the books from the Russian language, and promotion and consolidation of cultural links between Russia and foreign countries.

      The prize will be awarded every year for the best translation from the Russian into foreign languages of prose and poetic works, which were published by one of the foreign publishing companies in the last two years. 

        In 2012 the translators from the Russian into English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic languages will be able to take part in the contest. In the sequel, the list can be replenished by other languages.
       The prize will be awarded in four nominations:

      
• A modern prose (works published after 1990)

      
• A modern poetry (works published after 1990)

      
• A classical Russian literature and literature of the 20th century - prose (works published before 1990)

      
• A classical Russian literature and literature of the 20th century - poetry (works published before 1990)

      

There will be two winners in each nomination: the translator, which will be given a prize of €5000 and the publisher of the relevant book, which will be given €3000 for the covering expenses for the publishing of another Russian-language book upon agreement with the award's organizers.

      The first award ceremony will be held in Moscow on June 2012. The registation of the contenders is open on the Rospechat official site.

      The Institute of Translation was created in May 2011 with the purpose to support scientific and educational efforts and to create the system of promotion of translators' and publishers' work.  

Source: Openspace Image: Rosbalt