September 30, 2021—This International Translation Day, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is pleased to announce the shortlists for the 2021 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose! 2021 marks the twenty-third year for the NTA, and the seventh year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The NTA, which is administered by ALTA, 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.
The selection criteria include the quality of the finished English language book, and the quality of the translation. This year’s prose judges are Jennifer Croft, Anton Hur, and Annie Janusch. This year’s judges for poetry are Sinan Antoon, Layla Benitez-James, and Sibelan Forrester.
The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each. The awards will be announced at ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA44: Inflection Points, which this year is being held jointly online and in-person in Tucson, AZ. The virtual awards ceremony will be aired on Saturday, October 16, at 5:00pm PT. To attend, register via the virtual conference platform (there is also a free ticket option that includes public events like this one.)
The 2021 National Translation Award in Prose Shortlist (in alphabetical order by title):
Difficult Light
By Tomás González
Translated from Spanish by Andrea Rosenberg
(Archipelago Books)
Humus
By Fabienne Kanor
Translated from French by Lynn E. Palermo
(University of Virginia Press)
Impostures
By al-Ḥarīrī
Translated from Arabic by Michael Cooperson
(Library of Arabic Literature/NYU Press)
No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories
By Jayant Kaikini
Translated from Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana
(Catapult)
Shameless
By Taslima Nasreen
Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha
(HarperCollins India)
Stories of the Sahara
By Sanmao
Translated from Chinese by Mike Fu
(Bloomsbury Publishing)
The 2021 National Translation Award in Poetry Shortlist (in alphabetical order by title):
Allegria
By Giuseppe Ungaretti
Translated from Italian by Geoffrey Brock
(Archipelago Books)
Beowulf
By an unknown author
Translated from Old English by Maria Dahvana Headley
(MCD x FSG Originals)
Dead Letter Office: Selected Poems
By Marko Pogačar
Translated from Croatian by Andrea Jurjević
(The Word Works)
The Olive Trees’ Jazz and Other Poems
By Samira Negrouche
Translated from French by Marilyn Hacker
(Pleiades Press)
Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Contemporary Moroccan Poetry
By various authors
Translated from Arabic, French, and Tamazight by Deborah Kapchan with Driss Marjane
(Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UT Austin)
Unexpected Vanilla
By Lee Hyemi
Translated from Korean by Soje
(Tilted Axis Press)
Congratulations to all of the translators, authors, publishers, and editors recognized here!