ALTA History Timeline
1970s
1978
ALTA is founded with 305 charter members, The University of Texas, Dallas. The first ALTA conference is planned and announced in the inaugural issue of Translation Review.
1978
ALTA1
The Role of Translation in the Humanities
The University of Texas, Dallas, November 10–11, 1978
1979
ALTA2
The University of Texas, Austin October 26–27, 1979
1980s
1980
ALTA3
The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, October 3–4, 1980
1981
ALTA4
Indiana University, Bloomington, October 31–November 1, 1981
1982
ALTA5
Stanford University, October 29–30, 1982
1983
ALTA6
Loyola University New Orleans, November 4–5, 1983
1984
ALTA7
Boston University, November 1–3, 1984
1985
ALTA8
University of Arkansas Fayetteville, October 4–5, 1985
1986
ALTA9
Literary Translation & Literary Identity:
A Conference on Canadian Literature Around the World
Montreal, Canada, October 16–19, 1986
1987
ALTA10
University of Texas at Dallas, August 19–22, 1987
1988
Foundation of the National Translation Award
ALTA11
Publishing and Translation
City University of New York, October 19–22, 1988
1989
ALTA12
A Dialogue Among Translators and International Writers
Iowa City, Iowa, November 8-11, 1989
1990s
1990
ALTA13
Translation on the Border:
The Cross-Linguistic, Cross Cultural Enterprise
San Diego, California, , November 14–17, 1990
1991
ALTA14
Translation: Linking History and the Hemispheres
University of Florida Gainesville, November 6–9, 1991
1992
ALTA15
Translation: Discovery/The Other Voice
University of Pittsburgh, October 28–31, 1992
1993
ALTA16
The Magic Window
Georgia State University, November 4–7, 1993
1994
Foundation of the ALTA Travel Fellowships, funding emerging translators to attend the conference
ALTA17
University of New Mexico, November 3–6, 1994
1995
ALTA18
Crossing Borders: Translator as Outlaw
Austin, Texas, October 26–29, 1995
1996
ALTA19
Translating From Old To New, From East To West
Indiana University Bloomington, November 7–10, 1996
1997
ALTA20
Translation Celebration
The University of Texas at Dallas, October 30–November 2, 1997
1998
ALTA21
Guadalajara, Mexico, December 3–5, 1998
“ALTA has consistently built on these human—and ultimately humanizing—qualities, providing its professionals again and again with possibilities for a fertile linkage between intense intellectual activity and a deeply personal sense of the world. Professional contacts and contracts, useful insights and information on the craft and practice of translation, and warmly enduring friendships all occur in a context marked by discipline, play, knowledge, and something akin to magic.” — Lynn Hoggard, President’s Letter
1999
ALTA22
New York, New York, October 20–24, 1999
2000s
2000
ALTA23
At the Edge of the World
San Francisco, California, October 18–22, 2000
2001
ALTA24
Creators & Craft
Raleigh, North Carolina, October 24–27, 2001
2002
ALTA25
Chicago, Illinois, October 16–19, 2002
2003
ALTA26
Cambridge, Massachusetts, November 12–15, 2003
2004
ALTA27
Art Both Ways
Las Vegas, Nevada, October 27–30, 2004
2005
ALTA28
Language Crossroads: Where Literatures and Translation Intersect
Montreal, Canada, November 2–5, 2005
2006
ALTA29
Scandinavia Meets Asia in the Pacific Northwest
Bellevue, Washington, October 18-21, 2006
2007
ALTA30
Celebrating the Past | Imagining the Future
University of Texas at Dallas, November 7–10, 2007
2008
ALTA31
Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 15–18, 2008
2009
Foundation of the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize
ALTA32
Continental Drift
Pasadena, California, November 11–14, 2009
2010s
2010
ALTA33
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, October 22-23, 2010
2011
ALTA34
Translating Voices: Where the Great Plains Meet the World
Kansas City, Missouri, November 16–19, 2011
“Every time I attend the ALTA Conference, I remember what I encountered as a fellow and first-time attendee in 2011: it is a space where people ‘get’ the beauty of sitting alone in a room with a book and having a conversation with it in two languages (and sometimes out loud).” –Yardenne Greenspan
2012
Foundation of the Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation (2012-2019), which awarded one manuscript per year with publication
ALTA35
The Translation of Humor, Or, The Humor of Translation
Rochester, New York, October 3–6, 2012
2013
ALTA36
The Nexus of Translation
Bloomington, Indiana, October 16–19, 2013
2014
First Editor-Translator Pitch Sessions
ALTA37
Politics & Translation
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, November 12–15, 2014
Keynote Speaker: Christopher Merrill
“The theme of this year’s gathering, ‘politics and translation,’ highlights the many, often unnoticed ways that literary translation and politics broadly conceived are interconnected. From what we call a book to what we call a language (‘a dialect with an army and a navy’), from what gets financial support to what gets published, from the voices of characters to those of authors and translators, translation is conditioned upon political life. […] Translators, scholars of translation, and editors and publishers of translation know all this. This year we decided to put it front and center, though as with all ALTA conferences, there will be something for everyone.” — Russell Valentino, President’s Letter
2015
Foundation of the ALTA Mentorship Program
The National Translation Award is split into two prizes: the NTA for Poetry and NTA for Prose
Foundation of the Italian Prose in Translation Prize
ALTA38
Translation & Traffic
Tucson, Arizona, October 28–31, 2015
Keynote Speakers: Stephen Snyder and Jerome Rothenberg
2016
Foundation of the Peter K. Jansen Memorial Travel Fellowship, which is preferentially awarded to an emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language
ALTA39
Translation & Crossings
Oakland, California, October 6–9, 2016
Keynote Speaker: Don Mee Choi
2017
ALTA40
Reflections/Refractions
Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 5–8, 2017
Keynote Speakers: Lydia Davis and Tim Parks
2018
ALTA41
Performance, Props, and Platforms
Bloomington, Indiana, October 31–November 3, 2018
Keynote Speaker: Caridad Svich
2019
ALTA relocates its offices to Tucson, AZ
ALTA42
Sight and Sound
Rochester, New York, November 7–10, 2019
2020s
2020
ALTA43
In Between
Online, September 30–October 18, 2020
2021
ALTA44
Inflection Points
Online and in Tucson, Arizona, October 15–17 and November 11–13, 2021
Keynote Speaker: Ofelia Zepeda
2022
Creation of the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award
ALTA45
Value(s)
Online and in Tucson, Arizona, April–November, 2022
2023
ALTA46
The Place of Translation
Tucson, Arizona, November 8–11, 2023
Keynote Speaker: Sawako Nakayasu
2024
ALTA47
Voices in Translation
Milwaukee, WI, October 25-29, 2024
Keynote Speaker: Kaiama L. Glover
