{"id":539,"date":"2022-11-18T02:55:08","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T02:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/?p=539"},"modified":"2022-11-18T02:55:10","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T02:55:10","slug":"pen-heim-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/?p=539","title":{"rendered":"Pen\/Heim grant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am excited to announce that I have been awarded a Pen\/Heim Translation Fund grant for my translation-in-progress of the Africanfuturist novel Walenisi<\/em> by Katama Mkangi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read about the other awardees here<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judges’ citation reads: “A touchstone of Kenyan literature, Katama Mkangi\u2019s Walenisi begins with a reimagination of events from the dictatorial Kenyatta and Moi regimes. The novel\u2019s protagonist, sentenced to death for \u201ctalking too much,\u201d miraculously escapes his fate by piloting the space ship <\/a>intended as his grave to the utopian planet Walenisi, where a journey of self-discovery begins. Blending parable and science fiction, Mkangi, who was imprisoned for his pro-democracy advocacy, satirizes global capitalism and postcolonial authoritarianism while presenting a speculative vision of an egalitarian future. Richard Prins translates this thrilling ride with humor and verve \u2014 a rare chance for English-speakers to read an Africanfuturist work originally written in an indigenous African language.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a more personal note, I first read Walenisi about fifteen years ago while studying Swahili as an undergraduate. Though I wasn\u2019t yet fluent in the language, I could easily discern what wild and courageous vision was at play in this novel. I didn’t get around to rereading the novel until I came across a copy in a bookstore in Dar es Salaam last summer. I didn\u2019t even think about translating it, because at that point I was so immersed in Swahili songs and poetry. But through a set of serendipitous circumstances, I wound up translating the first chapter for an anthology of Swahili fiction that will be published by Two Lines Press next year – and now, with the encouragement of this grant, I am hopeful about taking on the rest of the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, back on the poetry front, several of my translations of the 19th century Mombasan poet Muyaka bin Haji al-Ghassaniy have appeared lately, such as “He Shuns Me”<\/a> in Rattle<\/em>, “Days of Eating Junk”<\/a> in Action, Spectacle<\/em> and “What Would You Do For a Treat?” in Tampa Review.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am excited to announce that I have been awarded a Pen\/Heim Translation Fund grant for my translation-in-progress of the Africanfuturist novel Walenisi by Katama Mkangi. You can read about the other awardees here. The judges’ citation reads: “A touchstone of Kenyan literature, Katama Mkangi\u2019s Walenisi begins with a reimagination of events from the dictatorial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.r-prins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}