The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is pleased to announce the longlists for the 2017 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose! This is the nineteenth year for the NTA, which is administered by ALTA, and the third year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The NTA is the only national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of both the source text and its relation to the finished English work.
Featuring authors writing in 11 different languages, this year’s longlists expand the prize’s dedication to literary diversity in English. The selection criteria include the quality of the finished English language book, and the quality of the translation. This year’s judges for poetry are Ani Gjika, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, and Gregory Racz. This year’s prose judges are Carol Apollonio, Eric M. B. Becker, and Ottilie Mulzet.
The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each. The awards will be announced at ALTA’s annual conference, held this year at the Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October 5-8, 2017.
The 5-title shortlists will be announced in August. In the meantime, ALTA will highlight each book on the longlists with features written by the judges on the ALTA blog: www.literarytranslators.wordpress.com
National Translation Award Longlist in Poetry (listed alphabetically by title):
A Map of Signs and Scents
by Amjad Nasser
translated from the Arabic by Fady Joudah and Khaled Mattawa
(Northwestern University Press)
Absolute Solitude
by Dulce Maria Loynaz
translated from the Spanish by James O’Connor
(Archipelago Books)
And We Were All Alive
by Olvido García Valdés
translated from the Spanish by Catherine Hammond
(Cardboard House Press)
Berlin · Hamlet
by Szilárd Borbély
translated from the Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet
(New York Review of Books)
Canto General
by Pablo Neruda
translated from the Spanish by Mariela Giffor
(Tupelo Press)
Not Written Words
by Xi Xi
translated from the Chinese by Jennifer Feeley
(Zephyr Press)
Returnings
by Rafael Alberti
translated from the Spanish by Carolyn Tipton
(White Pine Press)
tasks
by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez
translated from the Spanish by Katherine Hedeen
(co·im·press)
The End of the Dark Era
by Tseveendorjin Oidov
translated from the Mongolian by Simon Wickhamsmith
(Phoneme Media)
The Hunchbacks’ Bus
by Nora Iuga
translated from the Romanian by Adam Sorkin and Diane Manole
(Bitter Oleander Press)
The World as Presence
by Marcelo Morales
translated from the Spanish by Kristin Dykstra
(University of Alabama Press)
Valdivia
by Galo Ghigliotto
translated from the Spanish by Daniel Borzutsky
(co·im·press)
National Translation Award Longlist in Prose (listed alphabetically by title):
Chronicle of the Murdered House
by Lucio Cardoso
translated from the Brazilian Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson
(Open Letter Books)
France, Story of a Childhood
by Zahia Rahmani
translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud
(Yale University Press)
I am Behind You
by John Ajvide Lindqvist
translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy
(Text Publishing)
Kafka, the Early Years
by Reiner Stach
translated from the German by Shelley Frisch
(Princeton University Press)
No Knives in the Kitchens of This City
by Khaled Khalifa
translated from the Arabic by Leri Price
(American University of Cairo Press)
The Book of the Dead
by Orikuchi Shinobu
translated from the Japanese by Jeffrey Angles
(University of Minnesota Press)
The Explosion Chronicles
by Yan Lianke
translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas
(Grove Atlantic)
The Last Wolf & Herman
by László Krasznahorkai
translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes and John Batki
(New Directions)
The Party Wall
by Catherine Leroux
translated from the French by Lazer Lederhendler
(Biblioasis)
A Whole Life
by Robert Seethaler
translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
(Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
Wicked Weeds: A Zombie Novel
by Pedro Cabiya
translated from the Spanish by Jessica Powell
(Mandel Vilar Press)
Zama
by Antonio de Benedetto
translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen
(New York Review of Books)
