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
National Translation Award 2007-2014
National Translation Award 2015-Current
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
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]
Italian Prose in Translation Award
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]
References
External links