Fernando Rey, winner of Euskadi award

Fernando Rey has been awarded with this year's Euskadi prize for the best literary translation into Basque, in consideration of Pereirak dioenez, his translation of Italian author Antonio Tabucchi's Sostiene Pereira ( Igela publishing house, 2006).

The following candidates were short-listed for the prize: Mirentxu Larrañaga, for Peaceful soldadua (Private Peaceful), by Michael Morpurgo, Josu Zabaleta, for Zenbakirik gabe bizi: matematika-ezjakintasuna eta haren ondorioak (Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences), by John Allen Paulos, and Patxi Zubizarreta, for Mirarien kalezuloa (Zuqaq al-Midaq), by Naguib Mahfouz. The award-giving ceremony will take place on the 4th of December, at the headquarters of the Basque Government's Presidency in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Fernando Rey has been a runner-up on another two editions of the Euskadi Award: in 2004, for Ararat mendiaren sumina, (Ağrıdağı Efsanesi), by Yasar Kemal, and in 2006, for Paradisuko almanaka (Lunario del paradiso), by Gianni Celati. In addition, last year he was given the Vitoria-Gasteiz award to the best Basque translation of children literature for Piraten eskola (La escuela de los piratas), by Galician author Agustín Fernández Paz.

Fernando Rey has translated into Basque over a dozen works of literature by very different authors, such as Horace McCoy, Bohumil Hrabal, Natalia Ginzburg. On the other hand, it is to be remembered that he has rendered into Basque another two works by Antonio Tabucchi for the Collection of Universal Literature, in addition to Pereirak dioenez: Porto Pimeko dama (Donna di Porto Pim) and Oker ttiki garrantzigabeak (Piccoli equivoci senza importanza).

Fernando Rey was born in Pamplona in 1961. Even though he chose to study Medicine, he has always worked as a Basque teacher and translator. Nowadays he works as a translator for the Official Bulletin of Navarre.