Publishers, check this out! The Sheikh Zayed Book Award translation grant, which aims to support the publication of high-quality Arabic books in translation abroad, accepts applications all year round. Funding up to $19k is available for translation of literary titles for children and adult fiction that have either won or been shortlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Book Award. Find out how to apply here: https://www.zayedaward.ae/en/translation.grant.aspx
Do you translate from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, and other languages of the MENA region? Consider submitting to Y’alla, a biannual publication that features fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction!
And what’s more: The 2024 Y’alla Sci-Fi Contest is accepting submissions of up to 7,000 words of science-fiction themed stories or novel excerpts in translation. The deadline to submit to the contest is July 1. First place receives $1,000 and publication; runner up receives $500 and publication. Find out more at the website.
From the website:
“Submit up to 7,000 words of science-fiction themed stories or novel excerpts in translation, along with a PDF of the original text and a note showing that you have translation rights (emails are fine). Deadline: Monday, July 1st 2024 No entry fee. Submissions with more than one translator will be accepted. We define science fiction broadly. Dystopian stories and stories in other genres with science fiction elements will be accepted. Up to three submissions per translator will be accepted. These can be in one genre or across multiple genres.”
ALTA is excited to present Write the World: A Day of Translation! Connect with translators and translation enthusiasts from across the globe. Get ready for this day of virtual panels on topics related to literary translation on May 21, 2024!
Registration opens today, Wednesday, April 10. Tickets are $15, which will grant you access to all the events of the day.
ALTA members get 20% off registration for Write the World. Members will receive their discount promo code via email on the morning of Wednesday, April 10. If you’re not an ALTA member but would like to receive this discount, join ALTA or renew your membership today.
The schedule for Write the World: A Day of Translation is below. For more information and to read the participant bios, visit this page.
A Palette of Languages: Translating into or from Non-Native Tongues, 7:00-8:15AM PT
Many translators have been told that one can only translate into one’s native language(s). In this panel, we’ll hear from translators who have contested this assertion, bravely ferrying literature from cultures and tongues they grew up with or later built deep connections with. What are the trajectories they’ve taken from wanting to work with these languages to actually doing it? What are the challenges and stereotypes faced by translators working across a palette of languages, including ones that aren’t their first? How and when do “accented translations” land as “bad or good” English, and why even label them? How can translators who work with non-native tongues foster a sense of community, and how can the translation world celebrate such remarkable contributions?
Moderator: Barbara Ofosu-Somuah
Panelists: Isabella Corletto, Nguyễn An Lý, Sonakshi Srivastava
What I Wish I’d Known: General Professional Advice for Translators, 9:00 – 10:15AM PT
Whether you’re publishing your first book or your tenth, this session is for you! This expert panel of editors, writers, and publicists will share their secrets on landing a book contract, then creating a buzz about your forthcoming title. We’ll discuss what to do during the all-important 3-4 months before publication, general marketing strategies, getting the most out of social media, getting your work reviewed, boosting sales, and winning post-publication prizes and awards. Special topics will include the differences in publishing in the UK vs the US, as well as publishing children’s books and poetry. Time will be reserved to answer your questions.
Moderator: Nancy Naomi Carlson
Panelists: Katie Freeman, Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, Chad W. Post
AI Translation: Fears, Opportunities, and the Future, 11:00 AM – 12:15PM PT
Since the fall of 2022 when ChatGPT was released to the public, society has been inundated with information about what AI can do for you, and think pieces about how AI will destroy many a creative career. Every ad for Grammarly can feel like a nail in the coffin for working translators, yet there remains the possibility that large language models (LLM) could increase translation productivity and remove some of the tedious tasks from our lives. In this Q&A, journalist Timothy B. Lee will share his research on AI and discuss its various impacts on the world of both technical and literary translation.
Moderator: Chenxin Jiang
Panelist: Timothy B. Lee
What Publishers Want: How to Pitch, Present, and Promote Books, sponsored by SZBA, 1:00 – 2:15PM PT
Translators are often the first people to discover a compelling book in another language, but they may grapple with which steps they should take in order to pitch the project to a publisher. What should they present in order for the work to have the best chance of being accepted? And how should they best use their own networks to promote the work? In this panel, we talk with publishers about the process and how to help translators work with translation grants, build better publisher networks, and have better tools and strategies when reaching out to publishers.
Moderator: Erin L. Cox
Panelists: Michel Moushabeck, Laura K. Fish, John Siciliano
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is delighted to spotlight the judges of the 2024 awards!
We are honored to have these judges serving in 2024 on the panels of the National Translation Awards (NTA) in Prose and Poetry, the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, the Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA), the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award (SUFTA), the ALTA First Translation Prize, and the ALTA Travel Fellowships.
To learn more about each award and the judges, read below. For individual judges’ bios, photo credits, and image descriptions, click the provided links.
The National Translation Award (NTA) is awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. The NTA considers translations from translators of any nationality. The NTA is the only prize for a work of literary translation into English to include a full evaluation of the source language text. 2024 marks the twenty-sixth year of the NTA and the tenth year in which the NTA is awarded separately in poetry and prose. The winners of the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose will be awarded a $4,000 prize each.
The 2024 National Translation Award in Prose judges are Philip Boehm, Shelley Fairweather-Vega, Will Forrester, Joon-Li Kim, and poupeh missaghi. Learn about them here.
The 2024 National Translation Award in Poetry judges are Kazim Ali, Ronnie Apter, and Mary Jo Bang. Learn about them here.
The Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, which was inaugurated in 2009, recognizes the importance of Asian translation for international literature and promotes the translation of Asian poetry into English. Stryk was an internationally acclaimed translator of Japanese and Chinese Zen poetry, renowned Zen poet himself, and former professor of English at Northern Illinois University. The winner of the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize will be awarded a $6,000 prize. Both translators and publishers are invited to submit titles.
The 2024 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize judges are Eric Hyett, Archana Madhavan, and Shriram Sivaramakrishnan. Learn about them here.
The Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA), which was inaugurated in 2015, recognizes the importance of contemporary Italian prose (fiction and literary non-fiction) and promotes the translation of Italian works into English. This $5,000 prize is awarded annually to a translator of a recent work of Italian prose (fiction or literary non-fiction). Both translators and publishers are invited to submit titles.
The 2024 Italian Prose in Translation Award judges are Johanna Bishop, Isabella Corletto, and Diana Thow. Learn about them here.
The Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award (SUFTA), inaugurated in 2022, is offered by the American Literary Translators Association in conjunction with the Spain-USA Foundation. The award recognizes translations into English of literary prose works written originally by authors of Spanish (Spain) nationality. The source language of the original text may be Spanish, Catalan, Basque, or Galician. The winner of the SUFTA will be awarded a $5,000 prize. Both translators and publishers are invited to submit titles.
The 2024 Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award judges are Jonathan Beutler, Regina Galasso, and Kathleen McNerney. Learn about them here.
The ALTA First Translation Prize, inaugurated in 2024, recognizes the work of emerging literary translators and their editors. This annual prize is open to all genres, and awards one debut literary translation from any other language into English published in the previous calendar year. Translators based anywhere in the world and translations published anywhere in the world are eligible. The winner will receive a cash prize of $3,000, with $2,000 bestowed to the translator and $1,000 to the editor. Both translators and publishers are invited to submit titles.
The 2024 ALTA First Translation Prize judges are Esther Allen, Alexa Frank, and Urayoán Noel. Learn about them here.
Each year, a number of $1,000 Travel Fellowships are awarded to emerging translators to help them participate in the annual ALTA conference. Included in these Fellowships is the Peter K. Jansen Memorial Travel Fellowship, which is preferentially awarded to an emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language. ALTA Travel Fellows are invited to read their translated work at a keynote event, giving them an opportunity to present their translations to an audience of translators, authors, editors, and publishers from around the world.
The 2024 Travel Fellowships judges are Laura Nagle, Öykü Tekten, and Saskia Vogel. Learn about them here.
Submissions for ALTA’s awards are open until March 18, 2024 at 11:59pm PT. Submit today!
February 6, 2024—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is pleased to announce the mentees for the ninth year of the ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program! The program is designed to establish and facilitate a close working relationship between an experienced translator and an emerging translator on a literary translation project selected by the emerging translator.
Congratulations to these seventeen exceptional emerging translators, listed here in alphabetical order by surname:
Munawwar Abdulla (Non-language-specific, non-genre-specific BIPOC mentorship)
Munawwar Abdulla is an emerging Uyghur-to-English translator based in Massachusetts. When not translating, she splits her time between researching brains, Uyghur activism, and community-building work. Her writings have appeared in Modern Poetry in Translation, Asymptote, The Margins, and others, and she recently co-edited the anthology Under the Mulberry Tree. Learn more about Munawwar here.
Ammara Ahmad (Panjabi)
Ammara Ahmad is a writer and journalist from Lahore, Pakistan. Her work has appeared in Dawn, The Wire, Scroll, Quint, Indian Express, and Malaysiakini. She is a language activist and has been actively promoting Punjabi, which is a dying language in Pakistan. She can be reached as @ammarawrites on Twitter. Learn more about Ammara here.
Miriam Akervall (Swedish)
Miriam is a Swedish-American translator and MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Idaho. Their work appears in The Fourth River Literary Journal, Volume Poetry, Voicemail Poems and elsewhere. They were longlisted for the 2023 Frontier Poetry “New Voices” Poetry Prize. They live in Moscow, Idaho. Learn more about Miriam here.
Subhashree Beeman (Tamil)
Subhashree Beeman is a US-based literary and commercial translator working in the languages Tamil, French, Spanish, and English. She was born and raised in Chennai, India. Through the ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship, she will be translating her first book-length work from Tamil under the guidance of Mr. Kalyan Raman. Learn more about Subhashree here.
Marialena Carr (Catalan)
Marialena Carr was born 97 kilometers south of Barcelona and now lives due north of NYC. After half a lifetime as a research oceanographer she turned to writing and translation. Her translations from the Catalan can be found in Hyperion and Metamorphoses, and El Jo-Ull/The I-Eye by Vicenç Altaió. Learn more about Marialena here.
Sritama Halder (Bangla)
Sritama Halder is the Reading Facilitator at a Kolkata-based high school by day and a translator by night. As the Reading Facilitator, her job is to initiate her students into book-reading. As a translator, she translates academic articles from English to Bangla for CASI, University of Pennsylvania. Learn more about Sritama here.
Tony Hao (Literature from Taiwan)
Tony Hao is a translator and writer based in Connecticut. He is a recent graduate of Yale University, where he majored in English and studied fiction writing, journalism, and literary translation. Under the guidance of his mentor Steve Bradbury, he will translate contemporary prose written in Taiwanese Mandarin. Learn more about Tony here.
Dabin Jeong (Korean Poetry)
Dabin Jeong (they/them | they/she) is a poet and translator from Seoul, South Korea. Their works have appeared or are forthcoming in DIALOGIST, Salt Hill Journal, The Maine Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Indiana Review, and Chogwa. They are an MFA in Poetry candidate at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Learn more about Dabin here.
Hannah Kim (Korean Prose)
Hannah Kim is a writer and translator based in Seoul, South Korea. She has a MA in Korean Studies from Yonsei University and is currently receiving her MA in Korean-English interpretation from Ewha Womans University. She leads literary seminars on Korean translated fiction at Literary Arts. Learn more about Hannah here.
Sophie Grace Lellman (Literature from Québec)
Sophie Grace Lellman is bookseller, publicist, and editor based in New York City, where she works for two translation-focused indie presses. She received her MA in Comparative Literature from King’s College London in 2022. She will be translating her first book-length project with the support of the ALTA mentorship. Learn more about Sophie here.
Monika Lutostanski (Polish)
Monika Lutostanski is a Polish-American translator, linguist, and astrologer. Born and raised in Vermont, USA, she currently resides in London, UK, but calls Kraków, Poland, home. Having studied Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Virginia, she translates from both Polish and Russian into English. Learn more about Monika here.
Rachel Moles (Nepali)
Rachel Moles is a novice translator from England who also writes and acts. She was based in Kathmandu, Nepal between 2012 and Covid, where she taught English, worked for development organizations, and made some forays into film and theatre. She will be translating a Nepali novel into English. Learn more about Rachel here.
Megumi Noda (Japanese)
Megumi Noda is an aspiring literary translator of Japanese to English and English to Japanese, based in Tokyo, Japan. Most of her translation experience so far has been in a corporate context, and this will be her first full-length literary project from Japanese to English. Learn more about Megumi here.
Aditya Vikram Shrivastava (Hindi)
Aditya Vikram is a writer, translator, and emerging scholar from Lucknow, India. Currently a teaching fellow in the English department at Ashoka University, they are interested in questions of language, regionality, postcolonialism, performance, and gender. Their critical and creative literary work has been published by Goethe Institute, British Council, Agents of Ishq, and Gulmohur Quarterly, among others. Learn more about Aditya here.
Ananthu Sunil (Malayalam)
Ananthu Sunil is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in English, also working as a freelance translator on the side. Ananthu is also a rapper and songwriter, working hard to garner attention for his songs blending English and Malayalam lyrics. Learn more about Ananthu here.
Poorna Swami (Urdu)
Poorna Swami is a writer, poet, and choreographer from Bangalore, India. She received the 2018 Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize, and also the 2023 Jawad Memorial Prize for Urdu translation. Currently, she is a PhD student in the Department of South Asian Studies at Harvard University. Learn more about Poorna here.
Thila Varghese (Poetry from a South Asian language)
Thila Varghese lives in Canada, where she works part-time during the academic year as a Senior Writing Advisor at Western University. Her translations of Tamil literary works have been published in international journals and magazines. Thila’s translation entry was shortlisted in the 2023 Armory Square Prize for South Asian Literature in Translation. Learn more about Thila here.
The 2024 ALTA mentees will share their work at a reading at the ALTA47 conference in October 2024. Details forthcoming.
The 2024 mentorships are offered by ALTA in partnership with the BIPOC Literary Translators Caucus, the Institut Ramon Llull, the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, the SALT Project, the Swedish Arts Council, the Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, Québec Édition, and the Yanai Initiative.
Follow these links for details about the program and this year’s mentors.
ALTA Blog 