The University of Iowa’s Translation Program extends our warmest congratulations to MFA in Literary Translation alumna Bruna Dantas Lobato ('19) for winning the prestigious National Book Award in Translation for her translation of Stênio Gardel's debut novel The Words That Remain (New Vessel Press) from Portuguese. The National Book Award is one of the top annual literary prizes in the United States, and Levar Burton hosted this year’s prize ceremony in Boston on November 15th. In their citation of the novel the judges wrote: “Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain is deceptively simple, heartbreakingly honest, and a compelling examination of intimacy in relationships that invites the reader to experience queer desire and survival through new perspectives. Bruna Dantas Lobato’s translation brings the text to life, capturing the yearning for social and personal autonomy through fragmented memories. When love and life fail, Gardel’s novel reminds us how language can be a form of resilience, offering us comfort and a path forward.”

As an MFALT student at the University of Iowa, Bruna Dantas Lobato was a recipient of the prestigious Iowa Arts Fellowship. Translation Program Director Aron Aji remembers Dantas Lobato for her skill and sensibility with language: “Language for Bruna is an aesthetic space. Her treatment of the voice, tone, and acoustics of the original work consistently reflected a sophisticated poetics, grounded in her practice as a creative writer. I am beyond thrilled she has received this much-deserved award.”

Born and raised in Natal, Brazil, Dantas Lobato came to Iowa after receiving her MFA in fiction from NYU. She is the author of Hours of Blue Light, forthcoming in 2024 with Grove Atlantic in the U.S. and Companhia das Letras/PRH in Brazil, in her own translation into Portuguese. In addition to her 2023 National Book Award, Bruna Dantas Lobato is the recipient of other notable translation accolades, including a PEN/Heim translation grant for her translation of Caio Fernando Abreu’s Moldy Strawberries (Archipelago Books), which was long-listed for the 2022 PEN Translation Prize, and a 2023 English PEN Translates Award for her translation of The Dark Side of Skin by Jeferson Tenórios (Charco Press).

Parabéns, Bruna!