Authors, translators, and publishers will gather to celebrate the power of international literature at the annual Words Without Borders Gala on November 1, 2016, at Tribeca Three Sixty in New York City.  

Barbara Epler, president and publisher of New Directions, will be honored with the 2016 Ottaway Award for the Promotion of International Literature. New Yorker theater critic Hilton Als will present the award. 

During her long career at New Directions, Barbara Epler has introduced readers of English to works by such luminaries as W. G. Sebald, Roberto Bolaño, László Krasznahorkai, Clarice Lispector, César Aira, Inger Christensen, Yoko Tawada, Eka Kurniawan, Bei Dao, Raduan Nassar, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Joseph Roth, Alejandra Pizarnik, Robert Walser, Enrique Vila-Matas, Takashi Hiraide, Norman Manea, and Antonio Tabucchi.

“In a year that has underscored the need for literature that illuminates new perspectives and expands cross-cultural communication, we are thrilled to honor Barbara Epler for her work at New Directions,” said Samantha Schnee, chairman and founding editor of Words Without Borders.

 The event will be chaired by Jenny Staff Johnson and Anthony and Margo Viscusi. Legendary translator Edith Grossman will serve as honorary chair, and award-winning journalist, writer, and activist Roxana Saberi will host the evening’s program.

 Also present to celebrate the shared mission of Barbara Epler and Words Without Borders will be literary table hosts Gini Alhadeff, Paul Auster, Susan Bernofsky, Carmen Boullosa, Siddhartha Deb, Yasmine El Rashidi, Rivka Galchen, Siri Hustvedt, John Keene, Patrice Nganang, Idra Novey, Joseph O’Neill, Michael Palmer, Liesl Schillinger, Monique Truong, Eliot Weinberger, and Natasha Wimmer.

 Immediately following the gala celebration, the Words Without Borders Young Publishers Committee will host its third annual Globe Trot after-party with special guests Nicole Dennis-Benn, Katie Kitamura, Carlos Labbé, Imbolo Mbue, Anne Posten, and Kirstin Valdez Quade, and musical sets by Martín Perna (Antibalas) and DJ Herbert Holler. 

 For more information about the 2016 Words Without Borders Gala, please contact press@wordswithoutborders.org.