Past Mentorships

Past Mentorships

Previous years have included mentorships for literary translators working from the following languages: 

  • Arabic, with mentor Kareem James Abu-Zeid (2020)
  • Catalan, with mentors Mara Faye Lethem (2022, 2020, 2017-2018) and Ronald Puppo (2015-2016)
  • Chinese (poetry from Hong Kong), with mentor Jennifer Feeley (2020)
  • Chinese (literature from Taiwan), with mentors Mike Fu (2021) and Steve Bradbury (2023, 2022)
  • Dutch prose, with mentor David McKay (2023, 2021)
  • French, with mentors Emmanuelle Ertel (2016-2017) and Alyson Waters (2015-2016)
  • French (mentorship in prose from Quebec), with mentor Linda Gaboriau (2022)
  • French (Non-language-specific mentorship), with mentor Bill Johnston (2023)
  • Greek (Non-language-specific poetry mentorship), with mentor Kareem James Abu-Zeid (2018-2019)
  • Indonesian (Non-language-specific prose mentorship), with mentor Bill Johnston (2017-2018)
  • Isan (Non-language-specific BIPOC mentorship in prose), with mentor Mui Poopoksakul (2023)
  • Japanese, with mentor David Boyd (2023, 2022) 
  • Kazakh (Non-language-specific prose mentorship), with mentor Madhu H. Kaza (2018-2019)
  • Korean, with mentors Janet Hong (prose: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020), Jack Jung (poetry: 2023, 2022, 2021), Joyelle McSweeney (poetry, 2020), Sora Kim-Russell (prose, 2017-2018), and Don Mee Choi (poetry, 2017-2018)
  • Norwegian (Non-language-specific, non-genre-specific mentorship), with mentor Bill Johnston (2020)
  • Occitan and French (Non-language-specific poetry mentorship), with mentor Steven Bradbury (2017-2018) 
  • Polish, with mentor Bill Johnston (2022, 2018-2019, 2016-2017, 2015-2016)
  • Polish (Non-language-specific mentorship), with mentor Kareem James Abu-Zeid (2021)
  • Portuguese (Non-language-specific BIPOC mentorship), with mentor Katrina Dodson (2022)
  • Swedish, with mentor Kira Josefsson (2023, 2022)
  • Tamil (Non-language-specific mentorship), with mentor Kareem James Abu-Zeid (2022)
  • Russian prose, with mentor Marian Schwartz (2021, 2020, 2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017)
  • A Singaporean national language (Malay, Mandarin Chinese, and Tamil), with mentors Khairani Barokka (2022), Julia Sanches (2022, 2021), Jeremy Tiang (2021, 2016-2017) and applications judged by Alvin Pang (2016-2017)

Past Program Funders

Past ALTA mentorships were offered by ALTA in partnership with Amazon Crossing, Amazon Literary Partnership, the A. M. Qattan Foundation, the Dutch Foundation for Literature with the Expertisecentrum Literair Vertalen, generous individual donors, the Hong Kong Poetry Festival Foundation, the Institut Ramon Llull, the French Embassy Books Office, the Literary Translation Institute of Korea, the National Arts Council Singapore, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, the Québec Government Office in New York, the Russian Federation Institute for Literary Translation, the Swedish Arts Council, the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles (TECO-LA), and the Yanai Initiative

The 2022 and 2023 non-language-specific BIPOC mentorships were funded by the following generous individual donors: Anonymous (11), Russell A. Hunter, Robert A. Zucker, Esther Allen, Susan Bernofsky, Sarah Booker, Lexie Bryan, Sean Bye, Allison Charette, Heather Cleary, Lauren Cocking, Jessica Cohen, Sean Cotter, Rachael Daum, Elizabeth Ann Davis, Whitney DeVos, Lynn E. Palermo, Ellen Elias-Bursac, Maria Evans, Malecha Family Foundation, Jennifer Feeley, Marguerite Feitlowitz, Anne Fisher, Meghan Forbes, Dominique G. Hoffman, Laura Green, Jennifer Grotz, Jason Grunebaum, Daniel Hahn, Susan Harris, Michael Holtmann, Anton Hur, Chenxin Jiang, Jeremy Tiang, Abbas Jaffary, Elisabeth Jaquette, Kira Josefsson, Jacqueline Ko, Tynan Kogane, Hilah Kohen, Jeanine Legato, Sophie Lewis, Tess Lewis, Bret Maney, Clare Manias, Joan Manias, Laura Marris, Victor Meadowcroft, Rebecca Millsop, Erica Moroz, Robin Myers, Gabriella Page-Fort, Zoe Perry, Karen Phillips, Laercio Placido, Claire Potter, Allison Markin Powell, Julia Ringo, Rafael Anthony Roa, Nataly Rojas, Nathan S. McNamara, Samantha Sachs, Julia Sanches, Samantha Schnee, Marian Schwartz, Rachael Small, Kelly Starling-Lyons, Heather Streckfus-Green, Sarah Thomas, Daniel Vazquez, Padma Viswanathan, Sarah Vitali, Jonathan Wells, Isaac Wheeler, Frank Wynne, Eleanor Zucker, Lisa Zucker, and Katie Zucker.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from Amazon Literary Partnership.

To discuss becoming a future Mentorship Program funder, please contact Program Director Kelsi Vanada.

Learn More

You can watch video recordings of past Mentorship Program closing readings on the University of Arizona's YouTube channel (2022), ALTA's YouTube channel (2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017, 2015-2016) and on Crowdcast (2021 and 2020).

Learn more about our past mentees in the conference program book corresponding to their cohort's mentorship year (2023, 20222021, 2020, 2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017).

Read more about the 2023 mentors, 2022 mentors, 2021 mentors, 2020 mentors2018-2019 mentors, and 2017-2018 mentors.