French – Scott Moncrieff Prize

The Scott Moncrieff Prize is an annual award for translations into English of full length French works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and a runner-up is awarded £1,000.

Established in 1965, and named after the celebrated translator of Proust’s Á la Recherche du Temps Perdu, the prize is generously sponsored by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni.  

The Scott Moncrieff Prize is now open for submissions. Please apply below.
Deadline for entries: 31 March 2024.


An annual prize for translations into English of full length French works of literary merit and general interest. The winner is awarded £3,000 and the runner-up is £1,000.

The Scott Moncrieff Prize for the translation of French into English was established in 1965 and named after the celebrated translator of Proust’s Á la Recherche du Temps Perdu, and is sponsored by the Institut français du Royaume-Uni.

Entry Deadline: Sunday 31st March 2024 

Entry criteria

1. The original must have been first published in the last 150 years.
2. The translation must have been first published in the UK between 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
3. Submissions must not contain AI generated works.
4. Maximum two entries per imprint.

Conditions of entry

The decision of the judges is final and they reserve the right not to award the Prize if, in their opinion, no works entered reach a sufficiently high standard. Judges may call in books if they so wish.

Current employees (or anyone directly connected with the administration of the Society of Authors’ grants and prizes) or members of the SoA Management Committee may not apply for any of the grants and prizes administered by the Society of Authors.

It is a condition of entry that publishers will put the award logo or “2024 Scott Moncrieff Prize Winner” or “Shortlisted for the Scott Moncrieff Prize 2024”, on the cover of subsequent editions of winning/shortlisted books. We have designed roundels with this information on them if you’d like to use those.

How to Enter

1. Submissions must be made by the publisher.
2. Please upload a digital copy of the text in both languages to this application or send the files to [email protected].
3. Once this form is completed please send five physical copies of the translation and four physical copies of the French text (all non-returnable) to:

Scott Moncrieff Prize
Prizes department
Society of Authors
24 Bedford road
London
WC1R 4EH

Couriers should be advised to use the Theobalds road entrance.

The prize will be celebrated at the annual Translation Prizes ceremony in 2025. For any queries, please email [email protected]

Submissions must be made by the print publisher
The translation must have been first published in the UK between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024
The original must have been first published in the last 150 years.
Click or drag a file to this area to upload.
Maximum two entries per imprint
Click or drag a file to this area to upload.
Please provide a short bio. This may typically include recent publications, the name, date, and details of previous prizes won, education, training, and career background, and pronouns.
I agree to abide by the conditions of entry. I confirm that the translator and translation meet the criteria for entry as detailed above.
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The 2023 Scott Moncrieff Prize winner


Frank Wynne for a translation of Standing Heavy by GauZ’ (MacLehose Press)

The writing has been superbly translated by Frank Wynne, losing none of the humour, the energy, the authentic street view. This is a true tour-de-force in both languages, and reads as joyfully and sharply in English as it does in French.
Jane MacKenzie


The 2023 Scott Moncrieff Prize runners-up


Adriana Hunter for a translation of The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier (Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House)

A dazzling translation, which is as thrilling, funny, intriguing and philosophical as the source text.
Constance Bantam

Clíona Ní Ríordáin for a translation of Yell, Sam, If You Still Can by Maylis Besserie (Lilliput Press)

Maylis Besserie and her translator Clíona Ní Ríordáin create Beckett’s inner voice so convincingly in the novel that at times you think it might have been written by the man himself.
David Mills


The 2023 Scott Moncrieff Prize shortlist


Teresa Lavender Fagan for a translation of Marina Tsvetaeva: To Die in Yelabuga by Vénus Khoury–Ghata (Seagull Books)

Lucy Raitz for a translation of Swann in Love by Marcel Proust (Pushkin Press)

Shaun Whiteside for a translation of What You Need From The Night by Laurent Petitmangin (Picador, Pan Macmillan)

If you are interested in any of the books here please visit Bookshop.org.


2022 (presented 2023)

Winner: Sarah Ardizzone for a translation of Men Don’t Cry by Faïza Guène (Cavassa Republic Press)
Runner Up: Lara Vergnaud for a translation The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai (Amazon Crossing)
Shortlisted:
Chris Andrews for a translation of A Bookshop in Algiers by Kaouther Adimi (Serpent’s Tail)
Frank Wynne for a translation of The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter (Pan Macmillan and Picador)
Sheila Fischman for a translation of Em by Kim Thúy (Seven Stories Press)

2021 (presented 2022)

Winner: Sam Taylor for a translation of The Invisible Land by Hubert Mingarelli.(Granta)
Runner Up: Emily Boyce for a translaton of A Long Way Off by Pascal Garnier. (Gallic Books)
ShortlistedHelen Stevenson for a translation of The Death of Comrade President by Alain Mabanckou. (Profile Books: Serpent’s Tail)
Emily Boyce for a translaton of A Long Way Off by Pascal Garnier. (Gallic Books)
Roland Glasser for a translation of Real Life by Adeline Dieudonné. (World Editions)
Laura Marris for a translation of Those Who Forgot By Géraldine Schwarz. (Pushkin Press)
Aneesa Abbas Higgins for a translation of Winter in Sokcho  by Elisa Shua Dusapin

2020 (presented 2021)

Winner: Aneesa Abbas Higgins for a translation of A Girl Called Eel by Ali Zamir (Jacarada Books)
Runner-up: Frank Wynne for a translation of Animalia by Jean-Baptiste del Amo (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Shortlisted: Geoffrey Strachan for a translation of The Archipelago of Another Life by Andreï Makine (MacLehose Press)
Jordan Stump for a translation of The Cheffe by Marie NDiaye (MacLehose Press) 
Mark Hutchinson for a translation of The Governesses by Anne Serre (Les Fugitives) 
Natasha Lehrer for a translation of Memories of Low Tide by Chantal Thomas (Pushkin Press)


2019 (presented 2020)

Winner: Linda Coverdale for a translation of The Old Slave and the Mastiff by Patrick Chamoiseau (Dialogue Books)
Runner-up: David Warriner for a translation of We Were the Salt of the Sea by Roxanne Bouchard (Orenda Books)
Shortlisted: Penny Hueston for a translation of Our Life in the Forest by Marie Darrieussecq (Text Publishing)
Adriana Hunter for a translation of Woman at Sea by Catherine Poulain (Jonathan Cape)
Tina Kover for a translation of Disoriental by Négar Djavad (Europa Editions)
Geoffrey Strachan for a translation of Tropic of Violence by Natacha Appanah (Maclehose Press)

2018 (presented 2019)

Winner: Sophie Yanow for her translation of Pretending is Lying by Dominique Goblet (New York Review Comics)
Runner-up: Frank Wynne for his translation of Vernon Subutex 1 by Viginie Despentes (MacLehose Press/Quercus)
Shortlistees: Aneesa Abbas Higgins for her translation of Seven Stones by Vénus Khoury-Ghata (Jacaranda Books)
Sophie Lewis for her translation of Blue Self-Portrait by Noémi Lefebvre (Les Fugitives)
Helen Stevenson for her translation of Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou (Profile Books)

2017 (presented 2018) 

Winner: Will McMorran and Thomas Wynn for their translation of The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade (Penguin Classics). 
Commended: Antony Melville for his translation of Anicet or the Panorama by Louis Aragon (Atlas Press).  

2016 (presented 2017)

Winner: Natasha Lehrer and Cécile Menon for their transaltion of Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger (Les Fugitives)
Commended: Sophie Lewis for her translation of Héloïse is Bald by Émilie du Turckheim (Jonathan Cape)

2015 (presented 2016)

Winner: Frank Wynne, for his translation of Harraga by Boualem Sansal (Bloomsbury) 
Commended: David Bellos, for his translation Portrait of a Man by Georges Perec (MacLehose Press)

2014

Winner: Rachel Galvin, for her translation of Hitting the Streets by Raymond Queneau (Carcanet Press)
Commended: Lulu Norman for her translation of Horses of God by Mahi Binebine (Granta)

2013

Winner: Beverley Bie Brahic for her translation of The Little Auto by Guillaume Apollinaire (CB Editions)
Commended: Euan Cameron for his translation of A Journey to Nowhere – Detours and Riddles in the Lands and History of Courland by Jean-Paul Kauffman (MacLehose Press)

2012

Winner: Malcolm Imrie for his translation of Fear by Gabriel Chevallier (Serpent’s Tail)
Commended: Giles MacDonogh for his translation of Testicles (pictured far right) by Blandine Vié (Prospect Books)

2011

Winner: Adriana Hunter for Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi (Peirene)
Runners-up: Sarah Ardizzone for her translation of Daniel Pennac’s School Blues (Maclehose Press) and Frank Wynne for his translation of Boualem Sansal’s An Unfinished Business (Bloomsbury)

2010
Winner: Susan Wicks for Cold Spring in Winter by Valérie Rouzeau (Arc Publications)
Joint runners-up: Linda Coverdate for The Strategy of Antelopes by Jean Hatzfeld (Serpent’s Tail) and Lazer Lederhendler for Nikolski by Nicolas Dickner (Portobello)

2009

Winner: Polly McLean for Gross Margin by Laurent Quintreau (Harvill Secker)
Runner up: Barbara Mellor for Resistance: Memoirs of Occupied France by Agnes Humbert (Bloomsbury)

2008

Winner: Frank Wynne for Holiday in a Coma and Love Lasts Three Years by Frédéric Beigbeder (Fourth Estate)
Runner up: John Brownjohn for Elizabeth 1st and Mary Stuart by Anka Muhlstein (Haus Books)

2007

Winner: Sarah Adams for Just Like Tomorrow by Faïza Guène (Chatto)
Runner up: Geoffrey Strachan for The Woman who Waited by Andrei Makine (Sceptre)

2006

Winner: Linda Coverdale for A Time for Machetes by Jean Hatzfeld (Serpent’s Tail)
Runner up: Anthea Bell for Love Without Resistance by Gilles Rozier (Little, Brown)

2005

Winner: John Berger and Lisa Appignanesi for The Year is ’42 by Nella Bielski (Bloomsbury)

2004

Winner: Ian Monk for Monsieur Malaussene by Daniel Pennac (Harvill)

2003

Winner: Linda Asher for Ignorance by Milan Kundera (Faber and Faber)

2002

Winner: Ina Rilke for Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie (Chatto & Windus)

2001

Winner: Barbara Bray for On Identity by Amin Maalouf (Harvill)

2000

Winner: Patricia Clancy for The Dark Room at Longwood by Jean-Paul Kauffmann (Harvill)

1999

Winner: Margaret Mauldon for Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans (OUP)

1998

Winner: Geoffrey Strachan Le Testament Francais by Andreï Makine (Sceptre)

1997

Winner: Janet Lloyd for The Spears of Twlight by Philippe Descola (Harper Collins)

and Christopher Hampton for Art by Yasmina Reza (Faber and Faber)

1996

Winner: David Coward for Belle de Seigneur by Albert Cohen (Viking)

1995

Winner: Gilbert Adair for A Void by Georges Perec (Harvill)

1994

No Award

1993

Winner: Christine Donougher for The Book of Nights by Sylvie Germain (Dedalus)

1992

Winner: Barbara Wright for The Midnight Love Feast by Michel Tournier (Collins)

and James Kirkup for Painted Shadows by Jean Baptiste-Niel (Quartet)

1991

Winner: Brian Pearce for Bread and Circuses by Paul Veyne (Penguin)

1990
Winner: Beryl and John Fletcher for The Georgics by Claude Simon (Calder)

1989

Winner: Derek Mahon for Selected Poems by Philippe Jaccotet (Viking Penguin)

1988

Winner: Robyn Marsack for The Scorpion-Fish by Nicolas Bouvier (Carcanet)

1987

Winner: Barbara Wright for Grabinoulor by Pierre Albert-Birot (Atlas)

1986

Winner: Barbara Bray for The Lover by Marguerite Duras (Collins) 

and Richard Nice for Distinction by Pierre Bourdieu (Routledge)

1985

Winner: Quintin Hoare for War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phoney War by Jean-Paul Sartre (Verso)

Runner up: Barbara Wright for Childhood by Nathalie Sarraute (Calder)

1984

Winner: Roy Harris for Course in General Linguistics by F. de Saussure (Duckworth)

1983

Winner: Sian Reynolds for The Wheels of Commerce by Fernand Braudel (Collins)

1982

Winner: Anne Carter for Gemini by Michel Tournier (Collins)

1981

Winner: Paul Falla for The World of the Citizen in Republican Rome by C. Nicolet (Batsford)

1980

Winner: Brian Pearce for The Institutions of France under the Absolute Monarchy 1598-1789 by Roland Mousnier (University of Chicago Press)

1979

Winner: John and Doreen Weightman for The Origin of Table Manners by Claude Levi-Strauss (Jonathan Cape) 

and Richard Mayne for Memoirs (Collins)

1978

Winner: Janet Lloyd for The Gardens of Adonis by Marcel Detienne (Harvester Press)

and David Hapgood for The Totalitarian Temptation by Jean-Francois Revel (Secker & Warburg)

1977

Winner: Peter Wait for French Society 1789-1970 by George Dupeux (Methuen)

1976

Winner: Brian Pearce for Leninism under Lenin by Marcel Liebman (Jonathan Cape) 

and Douglas Parmee for The Second World War by Henri Michel (Andre Deutsch)

1975

Winner: D. McN. Lockie for France in the Age of Louis XIII & Richelieu by Victor-L Tapie (Macmillan)

and Joanna Kilmartin for Scars on the Soul by Francoise Sagan (Andre Deutsch)

1974

Winner: John and Doreen Weightman for From Honey to Ashes by Claude Levi-Strauss (Collins) andTristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss (Jonathan Cape)

1973

Winner: Barbara Bray for The Erl King by Michel Tournier (Collins)

1972

Winner: Paul Stevenson for Germany in our Time by Alfred Grosser (Pall Mall Press)

Special Awards: Joanna Kilmartin for Sunlight on Cold Water by Francois Sagan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson),

and Elizabeth Walter for A Scent of Lillies by Claire Gallois (Collins)

1971

Winner: Maria Jolas for Between Life and Death by Nathalie Sarraute (Calder & Boyars)

Runner up: Jean Stewart for Maltaverne by Francois Mauriac (Eyre & Spottiswoode) and The Taking of the Bastille by Jacques Godechot (Faber and Faber)

1970

Winner: W.G. Corp for The Spaniard by Bernard Clavel (Harrap)

and Richard Barry for The Suez Expedition 1956 by Andre Beaufre (Faber)

and Elaine P. Halperin for The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos (Gollancz)

1969

Winner: Terence Kilmartin for Anti-memoirs by Andre Malraux (Hamish Hamilton) and The Girls by Henry de Montherlant (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

Special Award: Anthony Rudolf for Selected Poems by Yves Bonnefoy (Jonathan Cape)

1968

Winner: Jean Stewart for French North Africa by Jacques Berque (Faber)

1967

Winner: John and Doreen Weightman for Jean Jacques Rousseau by Jean Guehenno (Routledge & Kegan Paul)

1966

Winner: Barbara Bray for From Tristram to Yorick by Henri Fluchero (OUP)

and Peter Wiles for A Young Trouti by Roger Valliand (Collins)

1965

Winner: Edward Hyams for Joan of Arc (Regino Iornoud Macdonald)

Runner up: Humphrey Hare for Memoirs of Zeus by Maurice Druon (Hart-Davis)

Constance Bantman

Constance Bantman © University of Surrey

Constance Bantman is Associate Professor of French at the University of Surrey. She is a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and holds the Agrégation in English. She teaches translation at undergraduate level and works as a freelance academic translator in History. She is a keen reader of both fiction and non-fiction. 

Jane MacKenzie

Jane MacKenzie

Jane MacKenzie is an author who lives in the Scottish Highlands, though she also spends extensive time at her other home in France. Following French studies in both the UK and France, Jane lived and worked all over the world, including France, Switzerland, Africa, the Arabian Gulf and Papua New Guinea, first as a teacher then in international education and research development. She turned her hand to writing later in life, publishing a series of acclaimed historical novels. She is currently completing a novel exploring the controversial politics of France’s greatest statesman, Charles de Gaulle.

David Mills

David Mills

David Mills is a journalist and writer, who worked on the arts desk of The Sunday Times for more than 30 years before he left in 2021 as Managing Editor, Arts and Leisure. While now spending more time attempting to improve his violin playing, he still writes and reviews for The Times and Sunday Times. A remarkably unprolific poet, David was a Forward Poetry Prize Judge in 2013. He grew up in Wolverhampton, studied at Cambridge and lives in north London.

2023

From the immigrant experience in contemporary Paris to the struggle of the working class in the provinces, from a transatlantic sci-fi thriller to a new version of the one greatest works of French literature, our shortlist comprises six works with nothing in common, except they are all exceptionally good books that have been superbly translated. And different from each other though they may be, all of them are worth reading, for if being the judge of a literary prize teaches us anything, it is that nothing is more foolish than to restrict your reading to the kind of books you think you like.
David Mills, 2023 Scott Moncrieff Prize judge

Institut Français du Royaume-Uni

Part of a worldwide network, the Institut français du Royaume-Uni promotes French language and culture and encourages cross-cultural collaborations. Founded in 1910, and based in South Kensington in London, it comprises a Language Centre, a Cultural Centre, Ciné Lumière, a cinema with two screens, and a multi-media library, La Médiathèque.