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:

I Am a Field Full of Rapeseed, Give Cover to Deer and Shine Like Thirteen Oil Paintings Laid One on Top of the Other
By Ulrike Almut Sandig
Translated from German by Karen Leeder
(Seagull Books)

Traditional folktales are a main tributary and inspiration for Sandig’s dazzling poems. The effects and aftertaste the reader senses mimic those we experience upon finishing a folktale. The initial deceptive simplicity and playfulness of the narrative always reveals violent desires and inescapable horrors. Sandig’s unique style allows her poetry to address some of the most urgent political concerns and crises of our world seamlessly, and without any aesthetic compromises.