The editors at Duende are thrilled to announce the winners of our first annual Translation Contest. 

winner: patricia hartland

for her translation from the Creole of "The Great Word Salutes the Water," by Monachoachi

Runner up: sarah thompson

for her translation from the Romanian of "london paris new york," by Ruxandra Novac

Look for the winning poems to featured in our March Monthly Spotlight Feature. The editors would like to thank everyone who submitted to our first ever contest! Given the huge number of submissions and interest in the contest, we are happy to say that we plan to run the contest next summer, as well.

"It’s a very mysterious process, translation.  The translator must disappear into the original, must absorb the music of another’s mind. And then the translator must return full force, with everything she has ever learned about the art itself—about poetry if it is poetry she is translating. In its iterative obliterations and reincarnations, it’s much more a spiritual than a transcriptional activity." --Forrest Gander, in Coastlines