Join us as we count down to the ALTA43: In Between 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 judges for prose are Amaia Gabantxo, Emmanuel D. Harris II, and William Maynard Hutchins. This year’s judges for poetry are Ilya Kaminsky, Lisa Katz, and Farid Matuk.

The awards ceremony will air on October 15, 2020 on ALTA’s Crowdcast page: you can register to attend the NTA in Prose announcement here, and the NTA in Poetry announcement here. Find the full list of longlisted titles here.

Today we’re shining the spotlight on NTA in Prose longlisted title The Cheffe:

The Cheffe: A Cook’s Novel
by Marie NDiaye
translated from French by Jordan Stump
(Alfred A. Knopf)

Whereas the applause soon turned to glorification of the Cheffe herself, and then ventured into the secret world of her presumed intentions, a longing to know her truest being, the only possible source for those sublime dishes.

The translator informs us that Cheffe is a new word in French, meaning “a female chef.” The novel, by French Senegalese Ndiaye, deftly parleys the language of culinary delight with the subtleties of nonverbal communication between a businesswoman and her challenging daughter. The enchanting text that results uncovers the histories behind an otherwise very public cheffe and her personal realities.