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:

Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Contemporary Moroccan Poetry
By various authors
Translated from Arabic, French, and Tamazight by Deborah Kapchan with Driss Marjane
(Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UT Austin)

This collection of translations opens with an informative introduction, which includes some of the poems in the original Arabic or French. The translations themselves are enjoyable and effective; the selection of poets is broad and inclusive, with the various voices nicely distinguished. As well as offering all kinds of pleasure to a curious reader, the book points to the richness of the poetic scene in Morocco today: it reflects serious research, as well as skill and poetic talent in making the versions in English.