Sunday Submissions: National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowships

It’s time to get ready for the December 6, 2016 deadline for NEA Translation fellowships:

It was August when the US arts-administrating body announced 2016 fellowships, which included fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry from 13 different languages, including the 12th-century Arabic project and a 20th-century Francophone Moroccan novel.

The criteria for selected projects, according to the August 2016 release, include “the translators’ skill, but also the importance of a particular work of international literature to English-speaking audiences, including those authors and languages that are often underrepresented.”

Emma Ramadan (for translating Ahmed Bouanani) and Melanie Magidow (for The Tale of Lady Dhat al-Himma) both won $12,500 awards.

Grants of $12,500 and $25,000 are similarly available for 2017, to translators of poetry and prose from any language into English. “Applicants must have published, alone or in collaboration, at least 20 pages of translation in digital or print literary publications or in book form between December 1, 2001, and December 6, 2016. Using the online submission system, submit 10 to 15 pages of translation and the original work, a project description, a résumé, justification of retranslation (if applicable), and the résumé of the writer of the original work with proof of eligibility by December 6. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.”

You can find out more, and apply online, at the NEA website.