The inaugural award will be for the best translation of a non-English graphic novel into English.
These awards have been created in honour of Sophie Castille, international rights director and V. P. of licensing for Mediatoon, cofounder and director of Europe Comics, who died unexpectedly last year. Since the late 1990s, Sophie has built bridges for bandes dessinées and their authors, out of France and around the world. She was a constant source of creativity, motivating publishers from all over the world and encouraging them to exchange ideas and, as a result, became a key figure in the growth of translation of comics and graphic novels around the world.
Publishers across the globe are being invited to submit for consideration graphic novels they have published that are translations of works into English.
The jury will be comprised of three judges: Karen Green, Curator for Comics and Cartoons, Columbia U's Rare Book & Manuscript Library; comic creator and former British Comics Laurate, Charlie Adlard, who has been an advocate for the translation of world comics into English for many years; and former TV producer, Peter Kessler MBE, Chair of The Lakes International Comic Art Festival.
Comics and graphic novels, considered in France as The Ninth Art, are a diverse and dynamic international medium that is growing in popularity every year and is loved the world over. Spreading these works internationally through translation is a way to bring the world together.
With comics in translation becoming an important influence in the publishing world, VIP Brands ltd, Comica and LICAF have decided to honour Sophie’s memory and continue her work to promote comics in translation around the world with these new Awards.
In the first year, the prize will be for a comic translated from any language into English, the prize to be given to the translator of the work. We are hoping to widen the scope of these awards and have partners all over the world leading to Sophie Castille awards for many languages.
Submission Guidance
The inaugural prize will be awarded at the Lakes International Festival in Bowness-on -Windermere in October 2023.
• Submissions should be made to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival no later than 1st June, 2023
• Entries are limited to a maximum of six works per publishing company, the works must have been released in the past twelve months – and only one per series
• Translators must be credited in the work
• The Entry Form can be downloaded from the link below (Word document)
• Full guidance on submissions can be found here: sophie-castille-awards.org or on this page of the LICAF website
Should you have any specific questions please address them to Carole Tait (carole@comicartfestival.com)
• Entry forms should be emailed to Carole Tait at carole@comicartfestival.com by June 1st, 2023
• To complete entries please send full PDFs via email, WeTransfer, Dropbox or similar to carole@comicartfestival.com
• We will request hard copies of works which reach the short list stage beginning of July 2023
A VIP Brands Ltd initiative with the support of LICAF and COMICA
