The nominees for the inaugural US Sophie Castille Award have been announced. The Sophie Castille Award is presented to the translator of a comics work, recognizing the often unsung work of those who bring international comics to other languages.
The awards are presented around the world in eleven different languages thus far: Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian. Polish, Slovenian (adult and children’s) and Spanish/Catalan. This is the first time the award has been presented to works published in North America.
The winner will be announced as part of the 2026 Harvey Awards ceremony on Friday October 9th.
NOminees were select bu a panel of judges: Sara Campbell, Johanna Draper Carlson, Amy Chu, Riccardo Serrano Denis, Erica Friedman, Heidi MacDonald and Calvin Reid.
And the nominees are:
- Heartcore by Štěpánka Jislová, translated by Martha Kuhlman, published by Pennsylvania University Press
- Not on Display by Zelba, translated by Alice Yang, published by Helvetiq
- Petra Chérie by Attilio Micheluzzi, translated by Jamie Richards, published by Fantagraphics
- True Colors: Growing Up Weird in the ‘90s by Elise Gravel, translated by Montana Kane, published by Drawn and Quarterly
- Witchcraft by Sole Otero, translated by Andrea Rosenberg, published by Fantagraphics
The Sophie Castille Award was created by translator/rights agent Ivanka Hahnenbgerer and are named after in honour of Sophie Castille, international rights director and V. P. of licensing for Mediatoon and cofounder and director of Europe Comics, who died unexpectedly in 2022. Since the late nineties, Sophie built bridges for bandes dessinées and their authors from 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. She became a key figure in the growth of comics and graphic novel translations around the world.
The US edition of the awards is administered by Augie De Bliek and sponsored by The Beat.
