Join us as we count down to the ALTA44: Inflection Points awards ceremony with the National Translation Award in Poetry and Prose longlisted titles! We will be featuring the titles in alphabetical order alongside blurbs penned by our judges for the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose. This year’s prose judges are Jennifer Croft, Anton Hur, and Annie Janusch. This year’s judges for poetry are Sinan Antoon, Layla Benitez-James, and Sibelan Forrester.

The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each. The awards will be announced at ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA44: Inflection Points, which this year is being held jointly online and in-person in Tucson, AZ. The virtual awards ceremony will be aired on Saturday, October 16, at 5:00pm PT. To attend, register via the virtual conference platform (there is also a free ticket option that includes public events like this one.)

Join us as we shine the spotlight today on this NTA longlisted title, along with a citation penned by the judges:

Dead Letter Office: Selected Poems
By Marko Pogačar
Translated from Croatian by Andrea Jurjević
(The Word Works)

Marko Pogačar’s work is intellectually engaging, often surprising, never restrained by ordinary politeness, and, on the whole, cheering—despite the frequent gloom of the situations described. Poet and translator Andrea Jurjević offers versions that are subtle, flexible, well-informed about the context of the originals, and especially good at conveying the interplay of stylistic levels in the originals. This is poetry to stir up the reader and sharpen every sense—not least, the ability to perceive unexpected beauty.