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 is the only prize for a work of literary translation into English to include an evaluation of the source language text. 2020 marks the twenty-second year of the NTA and the sixth year in which the NTA is awarded separately in poetry and prose. Submissions for the National Translation Award in Poetry are being accepted until April 20, 2020.
We are honored to present this year’s judges: Ilya Kaminsky, Lisa Katz, and Farid Matuk. Learn about them below:
Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, Ukraine and arrived in the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum. He is the author of Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo Press) and Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press). He is also the co-editor of Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Harper Collins) and co-translator of Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva (Alice James) and This Lamentable City: Poems of Polina Barskova (Tupelo), among other books. His work had been named a finalist for the National Book Award and awarded fellowships from Guggenheim, Lannan and Whiting foundations. He lives in Atlanta.
Lisa Katz (b. New York/ in Israel since 1983. PhD Hebrew University) taught translation
most recently at Ben Gurion University. Her translations from the Hebrew of Admiel Kosman, So Many Things Are Yours, and Miri Ben Simhon, The Absolute Reader, are forthcoming in 2020. In 2018, Late Beauty, poems by Tuvia Ruebner, was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. She serves as Israeli editor of Poetry International Archives Rotterdam, and since April 2017, as (interim) Central English editor of the Dutch site; in Fall 2017 she was translator in residence at the Iowa MFA program. Her poetry has been published in English, Are You With Me, and in Hebrew translation, Reconstruction. (Shikzur).
Farid Matuk is the author of This Isa Nice Neighborhood and The Real Horse. His poems appeared most recently in Lana Turner Journal, The Nation, Brooklyn Rail, and The Tiny. He serves as Associate Professor at University of Arizona’s MFA program and as the 2020 Holloway Professor of Poetry & Poetics at UC Berkeley. Matuk’s work has been supported by residencies and grants from The Headlands Center for the Arts and The Lannan Foundation. His book arts project, Redolent, made in collaboration with visual artist Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez, is forthcoming from Singing Saw Press.
Important update: As of this year, the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose, previously open only to translators with U.S. citizenship or residence, will now accept submissions of translations from translators of any nationality. We only accept submissions from publishers for this award via our Submittable portal. Submit by April 20!