Bio In Brief
Mona de Pracontal lives in Paris. Graduated in English language and American Studies in Paris, she studied film history and filmmaking at Columbia University and The City College of New York.
Mona started translating when she was a student and has not stopped since, with forays into the film industry and, more recently, conference interpreting. Her major translations include works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hannah Tinti, Cynan Jones, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, Rick Riordan, Frank Baum, Melvin Burgess, Howard Norman, Kaye Gibbons, Hanif Kureishi, and Conor O'Callaghan. She has also translated non-fiction by William Burroughs and Gloria Steinem.
In 2009, she was awarded the Baudelaire Prize for literary translation for her translation of HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the Prix de Traduction de la Fondation Irlandaise 2019 for her translation of NOTHING ON EARTH by Conor O'Callaghan.
Latest News
On 5 Feb. 2020, the Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, the French Embassy in Ireland and Alliance Française Dublin celebrated the launch of a new French Visiting Translator Fellowship.
Mona de Pracontal was Trinity Centre's inaugural French Visiting Translator Fellow.
In response to the threat of Covid-19, the Government of Ireland announced the closure of Colleges, cutting short her eight-week residency at Trinity College. Mona is currently working on her translation of Neil Hegarty's debut novel INCH LEVELS which will be published by Joëlle Losfeld, Gallimard.
