October 26, 2024— The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced the winner of the 2024 National Translation Award (NTA) in Poetry on October 26th at an Awards Ceremony as part of ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA47: Voices in Translation, in Milwaukee, WI. The conference was held October 25th-28th in Milwaukee, WI. 2024 marks the 26th year for the NTA, and the 10th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose.
This year’s judges are Kazim Ali, Ronnie Apter, and Mary Jo Bang. ALTA Vice President Corine Tachtiris conferred the prize, as this year’s prize judges could not be in attendance, on Laura Nagle, who accepted the prize on the behalf of this year’s winner, who could not be present. She read a statement from the winner and a selection from the winning text. The winning translator will receive a $4,000 cash prize and a commemorative plaque.
Winner: 2024 National Translation Award in Poetry
And the Street
By Pierre Alferi
Translated from French by Cole Swensen
Green Linden Press
This is what the judges had to say about this year’s winner:
Pierre Alferi, who recently passed away, was a major figure in contemporary French experimental poetry. A scholar of medieval literature, Alferi’s work is deeply informed by Postmodern critical theory as well as the lyrical traditions of both English and French poetry. The short fractured lyrics of And the Street capture the velocity and intensity of contemporary life, which somehow slowing time and attention to the smaller and often ignored moments that make up quotidian lives. The son of a philosopher and a psychoanalyst, Alferi’s work in And the Street marries the deep inner life with the phenomena of the material world.
About the winner
Cole Swensen is a poet and translator. Of her 20 collections of poetry, the most recent, And And And (Shearsman Books, 2023), was long-listed for the Griffin Prize and a finalist for the Big Other Award. She has won the Iowa Poetry Prize, the SF State Poetry Center Book Award, and the National Poetry Series and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and twice for the LA Times Book Award. Her translations include 30 volumes of poetry from French, one of which won the PEN USA Award in Translation, and numerous art-critical articles and exhibition catalogue essays. She divides her time between Paris and the SF Bay Area.
Image description: Cole, a white woman with short, light hair and deep-set eyes is, in this black & white photo, wearing a white shirt with an open collar and is standing in front of a light grey wall, her elbow leaning on a piece of furniture behind her.
“ALTA is honored to recognize Cole Swensen and Jamie Richards as the winners of the 2024 National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose, respectively,” said ALTA President Chenxin Jiang. “We are proud to administer the National Translation Awards, which turn the spotlight on a number of accomplished translators, writers, and the publishers who make it possible for these marvellous books to appear in English. We also hope they offer a starting point for readers hoping to pick up a new book or three in translation.”
About the National Translation Awards: 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. The NTA, which is administered by American Literary Translators Association (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.
The 2025 National Translation Award submissions portal will be opened in January 2025.