2017 National Translation Award Longlists Announced

Each year we're exited to find out which poets and translators will be honored by American Literary Translators Association with their annual translation award. Today, ALTA has released their longlist for the awards in poetry and fiction. From ALTA:

The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is pleased to announce the longlists for the 2017 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose! This is the nineteenth year for the NTA, which is administered by ALTA, and the third year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The NTA is the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of both the source text and its relation to the finished English work.

Featuring authors writing in 11 different languages, this year’s longlists expand the prize’s dedication to literary diversity in English. The selection criteria include the quality of the finished English language book, and the quality of the translation. This year’s judges for poetry are Ani Gjika, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, and Gregory Racz. This year’s prose judges are Carol Apollonio, Eric M. B. Becker, and Ottilie Mulzet.

The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each. The awards will be announced at ALTA’s annual conference, held this year at the Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October 5-8, 2017.

And now for the longlist in poetry:

A Map of Signs and Scents by Amjad Nasser translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah and Khaled Mattawa (Northwest University Press)

Absolute Solitude by Dulce Maria Loynaz translated from the Spanish by James O’Connor (Archipelago Books)

And We Were All Alive by Olvido García Valdés translated from the Spanish by Catherine Hammond (Cardboard House Press)

Berlin · Hamlet by Szilárd Borbély translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet (New York Review of Books)

Canto General by Pablo Neruda translated from the Spanish by Mariela Giffor (Tupelo Press)

Not Written Words by Xi Xi translated from the Chinese by Jennifer Feeley (New Mexico State University Press)

Returnings by Rafael Alberti translated from the Spanish by Carolyn Tipton (White Pine Press)

tasks by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez translated from the Spanish by Katherine Hedeen (co·im·press)

The End of the Dark Era by Tseveendorjin Oidov translated from the Mongolian by Simon Wickhamsmith (Phoneme Media)

The Hunchbacks’ Bus by Nora Iuga translated from the Romanian by Adam Sorkin and Diane Manole (Bitter Oleander Press)

The World as Presence by Marcelo Morales translated from the Spanish by Kristin Dykstra (University of Alabama Press)

Valdivia by Galo Ghigliotto translated from the Spanish by Daniel Borzutsky (co·im·press)

Congrats to all! Read on at the ALTA blog.