Tucson, AZ—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) has been approved for a $23,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support ALTA45 and the 2022 Mentorship Program. This project will support the ALTA45: Value(s) virtual programming which will take place throughout 2022, and the 2022 Emerging Translator Mentorship Program. ALTA’s project is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts and cultural organizations throughout the nation with these grants, including the American Literary Translators Association, providing opportunities for all of us to live artful lives,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “The arts contribute to our individual well-being, the well-being of our communities, and to our local economies. The arts are also crucial to helping us make sense of our circumstances from different perspectives as we emerge from the pandemic and plan for a shared new normal informed by our examined experience.”
“We are proud to receive funding from the NEA to support emerging translators and provide a way for our community to gather together and share their work,” said ALTA Executive Director Elisabeth Jaquette. “This crucial funding will help us uplift our current cohort of twelve emerging translator mentees, and allow us to offer exciting virtual programming throughout 2022. Although we will not be gathering in-person this year, ALTA looks forward to offering programming and connecting with constituents in a more sustained way around the year, a wish that many of our members have long expressed.”
ALTA’s annual conference is the only one in the United States dedicated exclusively to literary translation. It brings together between 500-650 professional literary translators, editors, educators, students, publishers, and literary arts professionals to discuss the art, practice, and publication of works of literary translation into English. This year’s programming will take place virtually throughout 2022, and will include panels, workshops, roundtables, readings, and special events. This grant also supports ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program, which facilitates a close working relationship between an experienced translator and an emerging translator. This year’s program features twelve mentees whose work spans the globe.
For more information on other projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.