The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is delighted to announce the 5-title shortlist for the 2016 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize. Lucien 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 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize recognizes the importance of Asian translation for international literature and promotes the translation of Asian works into English. This year’s judges are Steve Bradbury, Eleanor Goodman, and Kendall Heitzman.

The award-winning book and translator for 2016 will receive a $5,000 cash prize, and the award will be announced during ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA39: Translation & Crossings, held this year at the Marriott Oakland City Center in Oakland, CA from October 6-9, 2016. If you can’t join us in person, follow our Twitter (@LitTranslate) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/literarytranslators) for the announcement of the winners!

We’ll be featuring each of these shortlist titles on the ALTA blog with reviews written by the judges: www.literarytranslators.org/blog.

The 2016 Lucien Stryk Prize Shortlist (in alphabetical order by title):

I Am a Season that Does Not Exist in the World
By Kim Kyung Ju
Translated from the Korean by Jake Levine
(Black Ocean)

Ripened Wheat: Selected Poems of Hai Zi
By Hai Zi
Translated from the Chinese by Ye Chun
(The Bitter Oleander Press)

The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa
By Chika Sagawa
Translated from the Japanese by Sawako Nakayasu
(Canarium Books)

The Late Poems of Wang An-Shih
By Wang An-Shih
Translated from the Chinese by David Hinton
(New Directions)

These Things Here and Now: Poetic Responses to the March 11, 2011 Disasters
By various poets
Translated from the Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
(Josai University Educational Corporation University Press)