September 3, 2026—The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced today the longlists for the 2026 National Translation Awards (NTA) in Poetry and Prose. 2026 marks the 28th year for the NTA, and the 12th year to award separate prizes in poetry and prose. The shortlists for the NTA will be announced on October 6, and the winners will be announced on October 23 at an Awards Ceremony as part of ALTA’s annual conference, ALTA49: Give and Take in Portland, OR. The winning translators will receive a $4,000 cash prize each.

The 2026 NTA longlists feature authors writing in 12 different languages and books from 21 different presses, celebrating the diversity of literature in translation in English and the large, vibrant community of translators, publishers and readers. This year’s prose judges are Addie Leak, Eva Apelqvist, Hanna Leliv, N Kalyan Raman, and Priscilla Layne. This year’s judges for poetry are Karen Kovacik, Karen Leeder, and Robyn Creswell.

For more information about the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose, and to see what the judges had to say about each of this year’s longlisted titles, visit this page.

The National Translation Award in Poetry longlist (in alphabetical order by title):

The Figure Outward by Jean Daive, translated from French by Kevin Holden, published by Black Square Editions

Girl with a Bullet: Selected Poems by Anna Malihon, translated from Ukrainian by Olena Jennings, published by World Poetry Books

I Have Brought You a Severed Hand by Ghayath Almadhoun, translated from Arabic by Catherine Cobham, published by Action Book

If Only For A Moment (I’ll Never Be Young Again) by Jaime Gil de Biedma, translated from Spanish by James Nolan, published by Fonograf Editions

[Incognita Flora Cuscatlanica] by Elena Salamanca, translated from Spanish by Ryan Greene, published by La Impresora

The Minotaur’s Daughter: Selected Poems by Eva Luka, translated from Slovak by James Sutherland-Smith, published by Seagull Books

Ovid Void by Maria Stepanova and Eugene Ostashevsky, translated from Russian by Eugene Ostashevksy, published by World Poetry Books

Poet in the New World by Czesław Miłosz, translated from Polish by Robert Hass and David Frick, published by Ecco

The Ruins by Ye Hui, translated from Chinese by Dong Li, published by Phoneme (Deep Vellum)

Touché by Pascalle Monnier, translated from French by Cole Swensen, published by Green Linden Press

Unnameable by Anna Gual, translated from Catalan by AKaiser, published by Zephyr Press

The National Translation Award in Prose longlist (in alphabetical order by title):

Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski, translated from Norwegian by Nichola Smalley, published by Hamish Hamilton

The Calf by Leif Høghaug, translated from Norwegian by David M. Smith, published by Fum d’Estampa

Cécé by Emmelie Prophète, translated from French by Aidan Rooney, published by Archipelago Books

The Front by Edimilson de Almeida Pereira, translated from Portuguese by Johnny Lorenz, published by Sundial House

Hunter by Shuang Xuetao, translated from Chinese by Jeremy Tiang, published by Granta Magazine Editions

I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness by Irene Solà, translated from Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem, published by Graywolf Press

Into the Sun by C.F. Ramuz, translated from French by Emma Ramadan and Olivia Baes, published by New Directions

Mending Bodies by Hon Lai Chu, translated from Chinese by Jacqueline Leung, published by Two Lines Press

Mothers by Brenda Lozano, translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary, published by Catapult Book Group

Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson, published by HopeRoad

Visions and Temptations by Harald Voetmann, translated from Danish by Johanne Sorgenfri Ottosen, published by New Directions

When You Listen to This Song by Lola Lafon, translated from French by Lauren Elkin, published by Yale University Press

To see what the judges had to say about each of this year’s longlisted titles, visit this page.

About the National Translation Awards (NTA)

The NTAs are awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. Established in 1998, the NTA, which is administered by American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), is one of the only national awards 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.