The William F. Sibley Memorial Translation Prize was first established by the Department of East Asian Languages & Civilizations and the Committee on Japanese Studies of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago in honor of their late colleague William F. Sibley.  Sibley was Associate Professor Emeritus in East Asian Languages & Civilizations and a scholar and translator of Japanese literature. He is best known for his work, The Shiga Hero, first published in 1979 by the University of Chicago Press, which introduced Western readers to the fiction of Shiga Naoya, one of Japan’s foremost modern writers.  To view the William F. Sibley Memorial Translation Prize award-winning translations from 2010 to 2014, please click here.

In AY 2016-2017, the Sibley Prize was renamed The William F. Sibley Memorial Subvention Award for Japanese Translation. It is an annual competition coordinated by the Committee on Japanese Studies of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago (CEAS). In keeping with Sibley's lifelong devotion to translation and to the place of literature in the classroom, up to $3,000 will be given each year as a publishing subvention for translations of Japanese literature into English.  

Eligible translations include, but are not limited to, poetry, fiction, short stories, compositions, literary criticism, and essays.  New translations of works previously translated are acceptable.

Subvention funds will be paid directly to publishers.  Nominations will only be accepted from presses that have previously published Japanese literature in translation.  Materials submitted by individual authors and translators will not be accepted.

Author and publisher must agree to acknowledge the publishing subvention as “a William F. Sibley Memorial Subvention Award for Japanese Translation from the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies Committee on Japanese Studies” in the acknowledgment section of the book.  Publisher will also provide 3 copies of the final published book to CEAS so copies can be shared with the Sibley family.