National Translation Award

The National Translation Award is awarded annually by the American Literary Translators Association for literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. Since 2015 the prize has been awarded separately in categories of prose and poetry. Established in 1998, the NTA is the only prize for a work of literary translation into English to include a full evaluation of the source language text.[1] As of 2023 the award is worth $4,000 given to the translator.[2] The award is usually given to translations of previously untranslated contemporary works or first-time translations of older works, but important re-translations have also been honored. The winning translators and books are featured at the annual conference of the American Literary Translators Association.

The ALTA also awards the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, Italian Prose in Translation Award, the Spain-USA Foundation Translation Award, the ALTA First Translation Prize, and the ALTA Travel Fellowships.

Winners edit

National Translation Award 2007-2014 edit

Year Genre Translator Work Language
2007 Prose Joel Agee The Selected Writings of Friedrich Dürrenmatt by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (University of Chicago) German
2008 Drama Richard Wilbur The Theatre of Illusion by Pierre Corneille (Harvest Books) French
2009 Poetry Norman R. Shapiro French Women Poets of Nine Centuries: The Distaff and the Pen by Multiple (Johns Hopkins University Press) French
2010 Prose Alex Zucker All This Belongs to Me by Petra Hůlová (Northwestern University Press) Czech
2011 Poetry Lisa Rose Bradford Between Words: Juan Gelman's Public Letter by Juan Gelman (Coimbra Editions) Spanish
2012 Poetry Sinan Antoon In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish (Archipelago) Arabic
2013 Prose Philip Boehm The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller (Picador) German
2014 Poetry Eugene Ostashevsky & Matvei Yankelevich An Invitation for Me to Think by Alexander Vvedensky (NYRB Poets) Russian

National Translation Award 2015-Current edit

2015 marked the first year in which two separate National Translation Awards were given, one for poetry and one for prose.

Year Genre Translator Work Language Judges
2015 Poetry Pierre Joris Breathturn into Timestead by Paul Celan (FSG) French Lisa Rose Bradford, Stephen Kessler, Diana Thow
2015 Prose William Hutchins New Waw, Saharan Oasis by Ibrahim al-Koni (University of Texas) Arabic Pamela Carmell, Jason Grunebaum, Anne Magnan-Park
2016 Poetry Hilary Kaplan Rilke Shake by Angélica Freitas (Phoneme Media) Portuguese Adriana Jacobs, Karen Kovacik, Cole Swensen
2016 Prose Elizabeth Harris Tristano Dies: A Life by Antonio Tabucchi (Archipelago) Italian Karen Emmerich, Andrea Labinger, Marian Schwartz
2017 Poetry Daniel Borzutzky Valdivia by Galo Ghigliotto (co.im.press) Spanish Ani Gjika, Katrine Øgaard Jensen, Gregory Racz
2017 Prose Esther Allen Zama by Antonio di Benedetto (NYRB Classics) Spanish Carol Apollonio, Ottilie Mulzet, Eric M. B. Becker
2018 Poetry Katrine Øgaard Jensen Third-Millennium Heart by Ursula Andkjær Olsen (Action Books) Danish Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Jennifer Feeley, Sawako Nakayasu
2018 Prose Charlotte Mandell Compass by Mathias Énard (New Directions) French Esther Allen, Tess Lewis, Jeremy Tiang
2019 Poetry Bill Johnston Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz (Archipelago) Polish Anna Deeny Morales, Cole Heinowitz, Sholeh Wolpe
2019 Prose Karen Emmerich What’s Left of the Night by Ersi Sotiropoulos (New Vessel Press) Greek Bonnie Huie, Charlotte Mandell, Jeffrey Zuckerman
2020[3] Prose Jordan Stump The Cheffe: A Cook's Novel by Marie NDiaye (A.A. Knopf) French Amaia Gabantxo, Emmanuel D. Harris II, and William Maynard Hutchins
2020[4] Poetry Jake Levine, Soeun Seo, and Hedgie Choi Hysteria by Kim Yi-deum Korean Ilya Kaminsky, Lisa Katz, and Farid Matuk
2021 Prose Tejaswini Niranjana No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories by Jayant Kaikini Kannada Jennifer Croft, Anton Hur, Annie Janusch
2021 Poetry Geoffrey Brock Allegria by Giuseppe Ungaretti Italian Sinan Antoon, Layla Benitez-James, Sibelan Forrester
2022 Prose Martin Aitken The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard Norwegian Suzanne Jill Levine, Arunava Sinha, Annie Tucker
2022 Poetry D. M. Black Purgatorio by Dante Alighieri Italian Hélène Cardona, Boris Dralyuk, Archana Venkatesan
2023 Prose Nguyễn An Lý Chinatown by Thuận Vietnamese Natascha Bruce, Shelley Frisch, Jason Grunebaum, Sawad Hussain, Lytton Smith
2023 Poetry Robyn Creswell The Threshold by Iman Mersal Arabic Pauline Fan, Heather Green, Shook

Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize edit

Since 2009 the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize is awarded at the same time as the NTA by the ALTA and recognizes the best translation into English of book-length Asian poetry or source texts from Zen Buddhism published in the previous calendar year. It is named for Lucien Stryk, an American Zen poet and translator. The winning translator is awarded $6,000.[5]

Year Translator Book and author Language
2010 Red Pine In Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu by Wei Ying-wu Chinese
2011 Charles Egan Clouds Thick, Whereabouts Unknown: Poems by Zen Monks of China Chinese
2012 Don Mee Choi All the Garbage of the World, Unite! by Kim Hyesoon Korean
2013 Lucas Klein Notes on the Mosquito by Xi Chuan Chinese
2014 Jonathan Chaves Every Rock a Universe: The Yellow Mountains and Chinese Travel Writing Chinese
2015 Eleanor Goodman Something Crosses My Mind by Wang Xiaoni Chinese
2016 Sawako Nakayasu The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa by Chika Sagawa Japanese
2017 Jennifer Feeley Not Written Words by Xi Xi Chinese
2018 Bonnie Huie Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin Chinese
2019 Don Mee Choi Autobiography of Death by Kim Hyesoon Korean
2020 Jake Levine, Soeun Seo, and Hedgie Choi Hysteria by Kim Yi-deum Korean
2021 Archana Venkatesan Endless Song by Nammāḻvār Tamil
2022 Jae Kim Cold Candies by Lee Young-ju Korean
2023 Wong May In the Same Light: 200 Poems for Our Century From the Migrants & Exiles of the Tang Dynasty Chinese

Italian Prose in Translation Award edit

Since 2015 the Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA) recognizes the importance of contemporary Italian prose (fiction and literary non-fiction) and promotes the translation of Italian works into English. This $5,000 prize will be awarded annually to a translator of a work of Italian prose (fiction or literary non-fiction) published in the previous calendar year.[6]

Year Translator Book and author Language
2015 Anne Milano Appel Blindly by Claudio Magris Italian
2016 Ann Goldstein The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante Italian
2017 Matthew Holden We Want Everything by Nanni Balestrini Italian
2018 Elizabeth Harris For Isabel, A Mandala by Antonio Tabucchi Italian
2019 Simon Carnell and Erica Segre The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti Italian
2020 Frederika Randall I Am God by Giacomo Sartori Italian
2021 Stephen Twilley Diary of a Foreigner in Paris by Curzio Malaparte Italian & French
2022 Anna Chiafele and Lisa Pike Penelope by Silvana La Spina Italian
2023 Michael F. Moore The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni Italian

References edit

  1. ^ "National Translation Award (NTA)". ALTA. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Announcing the 2019 Longlists for the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose!". 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  3. ^ rcldaum (2020-10-15). "Announcing the Winner of the 2020 National Translation Award in Prose: The Cheffe by Marie NDiaye, trans. Jordan Stump, pub. Alfred A. Knopf". ALTA Blog. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  4. ^ rcldaum (2020-10-15). "Announcing the Winner of the 2020 National Translation Award in Poetry: Hysteria by Kim Yideum, trans. Jake Levine, Soeun Seo, and Hedgie Choi, pub. Action Books". ALTA Blog. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  5. ^ "Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize | the American Literary Translators Association".
  6. ^ "Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA) | the American Literary Translators Association".

External links edit