This morning, The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) announced the 12-title longlist for the 2015 National Translation Awards in Prose:
The prose longlist features two titles translated from the French, two from Spanish, two from Chinese, and one each from German, Greek, Italian, Russian, and Arabic. The Arabic title, William Hutchins’ translation of New Waw, Saharan Oasis, was published by the University of Texas at Austin. Al-Koni was also on the finalists’ list for the 2015 Man Booker International.
According to a news release, this in the only “national award for translated fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction that includes a rigorous examination of the source text and its relation to the finished English work.”
This year’s judges for poetry are Jason Grunebaum, Anne Magnan-Park, and Pamela Carmell.
The winners of the $5,000 award will be announced at ALTA’s annual conference, which will be held this year in Tuscon, Arizona, Oct. 28–31. Five-title shortlists will be announced the month before the conference, in September. Between now and then, ALTA promises to “highlight each book on the longlist with features written by the judges, on the ALTA blog.”
The Complete 2015 NTA Longlist in Prose:
by Cesar Aira (Argentina)
Translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver
(New Directions)
by Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya)
Translated from the Arabic by William M. Hutchins
(Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin)
by Mathias Enard (France)
Translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell
(Open Letter Books)
by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany)
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
(New Directions)
The Woman who Borrowed Memories
Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal & Silvester Mazzarella
(New York Review Books)
by Jean-Patrick Manchette (France)
Translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith
(New York Review Books)
by Amanda Michalopoulou (Greece)
Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich
(Open Letter Books)
by Giulio Mozzi (Italy)
Translated from the Italian by Elizabeth Harris
(Open Letter Books)
by Juan Jose Saer (Argentia)
Translated from the Spanish by Steve Dolph
(Open Letter Books)
by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
Translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz
(Yale University Press)
by Can Xue (China)
Translated from the Chinese by Annelise F. Wasmoen
(Yale University Press)
Running Through Beijing
by Xu Zechen (China)
Translated from the Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen
(Two Lines Press)