National Translation Award

Each year, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) invites publishers to nominate book-length translations, published in the preceding calendar year, for the ALTA National Translation Award. The award-winning book and translator are announced and featured at the annual ALTA conference held each fall, and a press release is distributed to selected major publications. The translator selected for this award receives a cash gift, currently set at $2500.

To be eligible for the award, a translation must have been published during the preceding calendar year by a U.S. or Canadian publisher and must be a book-length work, in English, of fiction, poetry, drama, or creative non-fiction (literary criticism and philosophy are not eligible). For nominated books selected as finalists, publishers will be asked to provide an original-language version of the text; any finalist for which no original-language version is provided will be excluded from further consideration. The criteria for judging the award are: (1) the significance of the literary contribution of the original as well as of the translation; and (2) the success of the translation in recreating the artistry of the original. Translations of contemporary works will receive preference, although important retranslations or first-time translations of older works will also be considered to the degree that they make significant contributions to literature.

The deadline for nominating books published in the preceding calendar year is March 31. For each nominated book, send a letter of nomination, four copies of the book, and a $25 entry fee (check for U.S. funds made to ALTA) to:

National Translation Award
American Literary Translators Association
The University of Texas at Dallas
Box 830688 (JO 51)
Richardson, TX 75083-0688

The National Translation Award supports ALTA's goal of enhancing the status of literary translation, improving the quality of literary translation, and increasing the market for the publication of works in English translation.