How to Apply

This award recognizes works of poetry or prose published in the previous calendar year.

• Submissions must be made by publishers for these awards.
• Works across literary genres (poetry, fiction, drama, literary nonfiction, graphic novels, and hybrid works) are welcome, and publishers should determine whether to categorize the work as prose or poetry (works may be submitted to only one category).
• Works may be translated from any other language into English.
• Works must have been published anywhere in the world in the previous calendar year.
• Works may be translated by a single translator based anywhere in the world, or by a team of up to four collaborative translators based anywhere in the world.

For books chosen by the judges for the NTA shortlists, publishers will be asked to provide the original-language text in digital form; any shortlisted title for which no original-language text is provided will be excluded from further consideration.

The National Translation Awards are governed by the policies and procedures set forth by the board of ALTA. Click the link to learn more about the judging process, grounds for disqualification, and conflicts of interest.

This award recognizes works of all genres published in the previous calendar year.

• Submissions may be made by translators OR publishers for this prize. Publishers are expected to have informed translators of their intent to submit to this award.
• Works must have been translated by a single translator based anywhere in the world.
• If a translator has previously published a co-translated book, their debut solo translation is eligible for this prize.
• Works must be the translator’s full-length debut literary translation into English.
• Chapbooks are not counted as full-length publications for this prize.
• Translators may have published other shorter literary works previously (such as in journals or anthologies).
• Works may be translated from any language into English.
• Works must have been published anywhere in the world in the previous calendar year.
• Self-published books are not eligible.

This award recognizes works of prose (fiction or literary non-fiction) published in the previous calendar year.

• Submissions may be made by publishers OR translators for this prize.
• Works must be book-length translations (at least 100 pages).
• Works must be translated from Italian into English.
• Works must have been published in the previous calendar year by a press based in the United States.
• Works may be translated by a single translator based anywhere in the world, or by a team of up to two collaborative translators based anywhere in the world.

This award recognizes works of poetry or source texts from Zen Buddhism published in the previous calendar year. Submissions will be judged according to the literary significance of the original and the success of the translation in recreating the literary artistry of the original.

• Submissions may be made by translators OR publishers for this prize.
• Works must be book-length translations into English of either a) poetry or b) source texts from Zen Buddhism (which must not consist solely of commentaries).
• Works may be translated from Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Sanskrit, Tamil, Thai, or Vietnamese into English.
• Works must have been published anywhere in the world in the previous calendar year.
• Works may be translated by a single translator based anywhere in the world, or by a team of up to two collaborative translators based anywhere in the world.

This award recognizes works of prose (literary fiction and nonfiction) published in the previous calendar year. Submissions will be judged according to the literary significance of the original and the success of the translation in recreating the literary artistry of the original.

• Submissions may be made by publishers OR translators for this prize.
• Works must be book-length translations.
• Works may be translated from Spanish, Catalan, Basque, or Galician into English, and by an author of Spanish (Spain) nationality.
• Works may be translated by a single translator based anywhere in the world, or by a team of up to four collaborative translators based anywhere in the world.
• Works must have been published in the United States by a U.S.- or Canada-based press in the previous calendar year.

• For the ALTA Travel Fellowships, an emerging translator is someone who does not yet have a book-length work of translation published or under contract.
• ALTA considers chapbooks to be book-length publications for the Travel Fellowships.
• The ALTA Travel Fellowships are open to individual translators (not teams of co-translators).
• Translators currently participating in ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program are not eligible to apply for a Travel Fellowship. Previous years’ Fellows are welcome to apply for the Mentorship Program, however.
• Each year, The Peter K. Jansen Memorial Travel Fellowship is preferentially awarded to one emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language.

• An emerging translator is someone who has published no more than one full-length work of literary translation.
• Though contemporary English is the target language, the emerging translator need not live in the United States.
• While ALTA’s Mentorship Program is open to all applicants, we especially encourage applications from those who don’t have an MA, an MFA, or some other equivalent type of training, such as a mentorship from the National Centre for Writing’s Emerging Translator Mentorships (UK).
• The selected mentee’s proposed project will be worked on based on availability. (It’s good practice to secure the rights before beginning a project, but applicants are not expected to secure rights in order to submit their proposal. We do encourage applicants to check on the status of the rights).
• All mentees are eligible for the First Look Publishers Program in the year of their mentorship.
• While applicants are encouraged to apply simultaneously to multiple mentorship programs (such as those offered by the National Centre for Writing, LTAC/QWF, SELTA, etc), applicants are not eligible to participate in ALTA’s Mentorship Program if enrolled in a concurrent mentorship.
• While this program includes a stipend for travel to the annual conference, it is is distinct from the ALTA Travel Fellowships. Current mentees are not eligible to apply for an ALTA Travel Fellowship. Previous years’ Fellows are welcome to apply for the Mentorship Program, however.
• Please note that some funders may have special requirements for the mentorships they support; these details will be shared in Submittable each year when applications open for submissions.