The Pegasus Prize for Literature Strives to Broaden Exposure of Foreign Fiction.

FAIRFAX, Va.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1999--

National tastes and the economics of publishing have caused U.S. publishers to shy away from foreign fiction unless there is a strong "buzz" from overseas about a particular book or writer. With 50,000 books published every year in the United States, it is difficult for an unknown author who does not write in English to get attention - particularly when the author writes about ideas and cultures that may be completely unfamiliar to the average American reader.

Mobil Corporation established the Pegasus Prize for Literature in 1977 to change that.

"Mobil's interest lies in bringing people together culturally as well as economically," says Lucio A. Noto, Mobil's chairman and chief executive officer. "The prize helps us demonstrate that commitment, recognize the talents of authors in many countries and bring them to an international stage."

This year's winner, "Dona Ines vs. Oblivion" by Ana Teresa Torres of Venezuela, is a perfect example of what the prize is intended to do. Ms. Torres' first three published novels were well received in her native Spanish. But her fourth novel won The Pegasus Prize and will therefore be published in English. Her potential readership will increase, since the English-language commercial publishing industry is the most influential in the world today.

By increasing the potential audience for Ms. Torres and others who do not write in English, The Pegasus Prize for Literature has been beneficial to literature around the world.

Cees Nooteboom of the Netherlands, for example, won the prize in 1982 for his novel "Rituals". When the book was published in English, Nooteboom reached thousands of readers in Europe and North America and won major prizes in France.

Until 1984, New Zealand's Keri Hulme was writing in obscurity as a reclusive Maori living on an isolated stretch of beach. After that, her raw and poignant novel "The Bone People" was under the world spotlight, thanks to The Pegasus Prize. She also won Britain's prestigious Booker Prize.

Denmark's Kirsten Thorup, whose Pegasus Prize-winning novel "Baby" was published in 1980, and Norway's Kjartan Flogstad, whose "Dollar Road" was published in 1989, might have blazed the trail for Peter Hoeg, the Danish author of "Smilla's Sense of Snow" more than a decade later.

Martin Simecka's Slovak-language novel, "Year of the Frog", published in 1993 as the Czech-Slovak winner, won the 1994 Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for Best Fiction and was published in paperback by Simon & Schuster.

Spotlighting the need for cross-cultural communications, The Pegasus Prize has enjoyed the support of well-known writers and leaders to help introduce winners to the wider world.

Vasily Aksyonov, Paul Auster, Cristina Garcia, Marita Golden, Vaclav Havel, Arnost Lustig, Mary Lee Settle, Mona Simpson, Robert Stone, William Styron, Ludvik Vaculik, and Kurt Vonnegut all have lent their support to the introduction of specific writers. Non-authors including U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, former UN General Assembly President Diogo Freitas do Amaral and Venezuelan-born media leaders Gustavo and Patricia Cisneros have done the same.

Organizations that have created partnerships with the Pegasus Prize have included the PEN American Center, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Columbia University Translation Center, Writers Voice/National YMCA, Foundation for a Civil Society, American Literary Translators Association and the Harbourfront International Festival of Authors in Toronto.

Mobil Corporation is a leading global oil, natural gas and petrochemicals company whose subsidiaries have operations in more than 140 countries. In the U.S., the company markets gasoline in 28 states and the District of Columbia through 7,500 branded service stations. Mobil and its predecessor companies have manufactured high-quality lubricants and special products for more than 130 years.

"Dona Ines vs. Oblivion"

by Ana Teresa Torres

October 26, 1999

$27.50

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The Pegasus Prize for Literature

22 years of literary excellence

1977-1999