July 16, 2018—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is pleased to announce the longlists for the 2018 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose! 2018 marks the twentieth year for the NTA, and the fourth year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The NTA, which is administered by ALTA, is the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of both the source text and its relation to the finished English work.
Featuring authors writing in 13 different languages, this year’s longlists expand the prize’s dedication to literary diversity in English. The selection criteria include the quality of the finished English language book, and the quality of the translation. This year’s judges for poetry are Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Jennifer Feeley, and Sawako Nakayasu. This year’s prose judges are Esther Allen, Tess Lewis, and Jeremy Tiang.
The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each. The awards will be announced at ALTA’s annual conference, held this year at the Indiana Memorial Union at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN from October 31 – November 3, 2018. The 5-title shortlists will be announced in September. In the meantime, ALTA will highlight each book on the longlists with features written by the judges on the ALTA blog: https://literarytranslators.wordpress.com/
The 2018 NTA Longlist in Poetry (in alphabetical order by title):
The Book of Disquiet
by Fernando Pessoa
translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
(New Directions)
Directions for Use
by Ana Ristović
translated from the Serbian by Steven Teref and Maja Teref
(Zephyr Press)
Hackers
by Aase Berg
translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson
(Black Ocean)
I Remember Nightfall
by Marosa di Giorgio
translated from the Spanish by Jeannine Marie Pitas
(Ugly Duckling Presse)
If I Were a Suicide Bomber
by Per Aage Brandt
translated from the Danish by Thom Satterlee
(Open Letter Books)
Magnetic Point: Selected Poems
by Ryszard Krynicki
translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh
(New Directions)
My Lai
by Carmen Berenguer
translated from the Spanish by Liz Henry
(Cardboard House Press)
The Odyssey
by Homer
translated from the Greek by Emily Wilson
(W. W. Norton & Company)
Oxygen: Selected Poems
by Julia Fiedorczuk
translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston
(Zephyr Press)
Sonic Peace
by Kiriu Minashita
translated from the Japanese by Spencer Thurlow and Eric Hyett
(Phoneme Media)
Spiral Staircase: Collected Poems
by Hirato Renkichi
translated from the Japanese by Sho Sugita
(Ugly Duckling Presse)
Third-Millennium Heart
by Ursula Andkjær Olsen
translated from the Danish by Katrine Øgaard Jensen
(Action Books)
The 2018 NTA Longlist in Prose (in alphabetical order by title):
Affections
by Rodrigo Hasbún
translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes
(Simon & Schuster)
August
by Romina Paula
translated from the Spanish by Jennifer Croft
(Feminist Press)
Compass
by Mathias Énard
translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
(New Directions)
Dandelions
by Yasunari Kawabata
translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich
(New Directions)
Ghachar Ghochar
by Vivek Shanbhag
translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur
(Penguin Books)
The Impossible Fairy Tale
by Han Yujoo
translated from the Korean by Janet Hong
(Graywolf Press)
The Invented Part
by Rodrigo Fresán
translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden
(Open Letter Books)
Italian Chronicles
by Stendhal
translated from the French by Raymond N. MacKenzie
(University of Minnesota Press)
Moving the Palace
by Charif Majdalani
translated from the French by Edward Gauvin
(New Vessel Press)
Old Rendering Plant
by Wolfgang Hilbig
translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole
(Two Lines Press)
Swallowing Mercury
by Wioletta Greg
translated from the Polish by Eliza Marciniak
(Transit Books)
The World Goes On
by László Krasznahorkai
translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes, Ottilie Mulzet, and John Batki
(New Directions)