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:

The Other Name: Septology I-II
By Jon Fosse
Translated from Norwegian by Damion Searls
(Transit Books)

This is a stunning achievement, the first volume in a trilogy by Fosse, sumptuously translated by Damion Searls. It is an incredibly compelling portrait of the ravages of alcoholism in two men named Asle, both painters, one who quit drinking with the help (as he often repeats) of his wife, the other who is in the hospital and may never recover. The structure of the book is brilliant, with each section corresponding to a single day that ends in a prayer that breaks off when Asle falls asleep. Searls’ prose is so beautiful, and Fosse’s characters are wonderful—Guro, the memory of Ales, Bragi (the lovely dog, a reason for being for both Asles)—so that the whole is deeply absorbing, even intoxicating.