Ryan Chamberlain, instructor of French in the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, has been awarded an Albertine Translation Fund Grant of $5,000 for his translation of the novel The Lives and Deaths of Véronique Bangoura, by Guinean author Tierno Monénembo, winner of France's prestigious Prix Renaudot.

The novel is set in both Guinea and Paris. Monénembo explores themes of international exile, abuse, generational trauma and repressed memory of a people and country under the regime of dictator Sekou Toure from 1956-1982, in which 50,000 people were reported killed or disappeared. With his title character Véronique Bangoura, Monénembo provides a portrait of a powerful female protagonist living under an assumed name in exile, having fled her native country to take on a new identity and occupation as caregiver. Read more about the book and Monénembo here. 

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Villa Albertine announced the winners of the 2025 Albertine Translation Prize. The ceremony was hosted at the French Embassy in New York City, where one work of fiction and one work of nonfiction received the $5,000 prize. Chamberlain was nominated for the prize for his work. Other nominees can be viewed at the Villa Albertine website. 

Chamberlain said, "I'd like to acknowledge the debt I owe my professors-turned-colleagues in French and creative writing, especially Nancy Arenberg, Geoff Brock, Padma Viswanathan, Bryan Hurt, Annie Doucet and John DuVal, as well as our M.F.A. program's gem of a literary magazine, The Arkansas International, which played no small role in getting the book deal."

Chamberlain's translation is set to be published on March 4, 2025, by Schaffner Press and can be purchased online through Bookshop, Barnes and Noble and Amazon, or in town at Pearl's Books. A published excerpt of the book can be viewed through The Brooklyn Rail.

About Ryan Chamberlain: Chamberlain is a University of Arkansas alumnus who earned a Master of Arts degree in French as well as a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and translation in 2023. He has been teaching French at the University of Arkansas as an instructor of French since 2023. With Carolyn F. Walton Cole Fellowships in both fiction and translation, Chamberlain has worked as a subtitler for TV5Monde and served as translation editor for The Arkansas International.