Join us as we count down to ALTA41: Performance, Props, and Platforms with the National Translation Award in Poetry and Prose long- and shortlisted titles! We will be featuring the titles in alphabetical order, moving first through the longlisted and then the shortlisted titles, alongside blurbs penned by our judges for the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose. This year’s judges for poetry are Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Jennifer Feeley, and Sawako Nakayasu, and this year’s prose judges are Esther Allen, Tess Lewis, and Jeremy Tiang.

For quick reference, you may find the NTA longlists here, and the NTA shortlists here. Today we’re shining the spotlight on If I Were a Suicide Bomber, longlisted for the National Translation Award in Poetry:

If I Were a Suicide Bomber
by Per Aage Brandt
translated from the Danish by Thom Satterlee
(Open Letter Books)

With this impressive selection of poetry by prolific Danish author Per Aage Brandt, translator Thom Satterlee has brought a unique voice and vision into the English language. Brandt is also a cognitive scientist, philosopher, and jazz musician, and these diverse fields shine through in his poetry, whose tones range seamlessly from witty to acerbic, from solemnly reflective to tragically morose, and whose forms are as varied as their subject matter (how often do titles come at the end of poems?). Thom Satterlee’s brilliant translations maneuver across these disparate terrains, skillfully capturing the humor, sorrow, joy, and compassion of Brandt’s work.