The second Talât Sait Halman Translation Award was presented to Ahmet Arpad for his successful and meticulous translation of Anna Seghers’ novel Transit.
Born in Istanbul in 1942, Ahmet Arpad has been living in Germany since 1968 after receiving his higher education at Istanbul University’s Department of German Language and Literature. Ahmet Arpad formed the German-Turkish Forum with Edzard Reuter and the former Mayor of Stuttgart Prof. Manfred Rommel, with the support of Baden-Wurttemberg State Administration, Stuttgart Municipality and the Robert Bosch Foundation. Arpad, a second place winner of the 1994-1995 Abdi İpekci Travel Writing Contest, is also a member of the German Press Federation (Deutshcer Presse Verband - DPV), PEN Turkey Centre, Salzburg Stefan Zweig Centre and Turkish Association of Translators (ÇEVBİR). In 2012, Ahmet Arpad was honoured with the Tarabya Translation Award, jointly presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye, The Goethe-Institut, Robert Bosch Foundation and S. Fischer Foundation. Ahmet Arpad is best known for his translations of various works by Heinrich Böll, Gerhard Hauptmann, Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig, Hans Fallada, Anna Seghers, Pablo Neruda, Johannes M.Simmel, Thomas Bernhard and Harry Mulisch.
Selection Committee
Doğan Hızlan, author (Chair)
Sevin Okyay, author, translator, and critic
Ahmet Cemal, author and translator
Yiğit Bener, author and translator
Kaya Genç, author and translator
Transit
Author: Anna Seghers
Translator: Ahmet Arpad
Publisher: Everest Yayınları
Original title: Transit
First edition in Turkish: 2016