Sunday Submissions: ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program

Along with its mentorships in Catalan, Korean poetry and prose, and Russian prose, the American Literary Translators Association is also accepting applications for “non-language-specific mentorships, one in poetry and one in prose”:

Those accepted into the program will be expected to complete a book-length project during the mentorship year, which will be presented at ALTA40: Reflections/Refractions, set for October 5-8, 2017 in Minneapolis, Minn.

According to the call for applicants:

The mentor and mentee will meet at the beginning of their mentorship at the annual ALTA conference, and continue their work during the rest of the mentorship year, either in person, over Skype, or by phone as appropriate. A minimum of six meetings is expected for the course of the year. The mentorship will conclude with a presentation of the mentee’s work in a reading corresponding with National Translation Month. A number of magazine editors have agreed to review submissions directly from mentees at the end of their mentorship year, and to work with them on potential future projects. The award covers travel to the ALTA conference at the beginning of the mentorship.

The deadline for applications is May 31, 2017, and selected mentees will be announced in July.

Those interested in applying will need to submit:

  • CV
  • A project proposal of no more than 1000 words. Projects must be reasonably expected to be completed within the scope of the 1-year mentorship. Proposals should include information about the original author and importance of the source text, as well as how the emerging translator would benefit from mentorship. One round of judging will be blind, so the translator’s name should NOT appear anywhere on this document.
  • A sample translation of 8-10 pages double spaced (prose or poetry), along with the corresponding source text. One round of judging will be blind, so the translator’s name should NOT appear anywhere on this document.

The “non-language-specific” mentor for prose will be the brilliant Polish-English translator Bill Johnston, with the poetry mentor TBD.

These mentorships are being offered by ALTA in partnership with AmazonCrossing and the Amazon Literary Partnership. More is availalable on the ALTA website.