The National Translation Award is awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. Established in 1998, the NTA is the only prize for a work of literary translation into English to include an evaluation of the source language text. 2015 was the first year in which the NTA was awarded separately in poetry and prose. 

The winning translators and books are featured at the annual conference of the American Literary Translators Association. The winning translators of the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose are awarded $4,000 each.

Recent winners include Robyn Creswell (2023 Poetry), Nguyễn An Lý (2023 Prose), D. M. Black (2022 Poetry), Martin Aitken (2022 Prose), Geoffrey Brock (2021 Poetry), Tejaswini Niranjana (2021 Prose), Jake Levine, Soeun Seo, and Hedgie Choi (2020 Poetry),  Jordan Stump (2020 Prose), Bill Johnston (2019 Poetry), Karen Emmerich (2019 Prose), Katrine Øgaard Jensen (2018 Poetry), Charlotte Mandell (2018 Prose), Daniel Borzutzky (2017 Poetry), Esther Allen (2017 Prose), Hilary Kaplan (2016 Poetry), and Elizabeth Harris (2016 Prose). You can find the full list of winners and judges here.

Eligibility for the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose: 

• ALTA only accepts submissions from publishers for these awards
• translated from any language into English
• a book-length work of literature (poetry, fiction, drama, literary nonfiction, graphic novels, and hybrid works are accepted)
• published in English translation anywhere in the world in the previous calendar year by a single translator based anywhere in the world, or by a team of up to (but not exceeding) four collaborative translators based anywhere in the world

For books chosen by the judges for the NTA longlists, publishers will be asked to provide the original-language text in digital form; any longlisted 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.

Publishers are invited to submit translated works of poetry or prose published in the previous calendar year. Hybrid works and drama are welcome, and may be submitted to either category as determined appropriate by the publisher.

Submissions are accepted beginning in January each year. Submissions for the 2024 awards cycle opened January 16 and will close March 18, 2024.

How to Submit:

1. Complete the entry form online, and pay submission fee ($30 per entry for publishers with 10 or fewer titles a year, $50 per entry for publishers with more than 10 titles a year).

2. Send hard copies of the book(s) submitted to the judges requesting them. Upon completion of the submission, publishers will receive instructions for mailing print copies of submitted titles to those judges who request them. Please do not send hard copies of the book to ALTA directly. Books sent to ALTA will not be considered submitted for the award.

3. If the book is selected to be on the longlist, ALTA will contact the publisher to request a copy of the original language text in digital form for review by our expert readers. 

If you are interested in serving as an expert reader for the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose, please write to Communications and Awards Manager Rachael Daum at rachaeldaum@literarytranslators.org.  ALTA is able to offer a $50 honorarium to each expert reader for evaluating one longlisted title.