Sunday Submissions: ALTA Arabic Mentorship
The ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program — designed to establish and facilitate a close working relationship between an experienced translator and an emerging translator on a particular — has opened up an Arabic-specific mentorship with translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid:
The mentorship takes place over nine months, during which time the emerging translator is expected to complete their project, with assistance and advice from their mentor.
This year, seven mentorships are available:
- Arabic poetry or prose, with mentor Kareem James Abu-Zeid
- Catalan poetry or prose, with mentor Mara Faye Lethem
- Poetry from Hong Kong, with mentor Jennifer Feeley
- Korean poetry, with mentor Joyelle McSweeney
- Korean prose, with mentor Janet Hong
- Russian prose, with mentor Marian Schwartz
- *Non-language-specific, non-genre-specific, with mentor Bill Johnston
Applications are open through December 8, 2019, and the program is set to run from February-November, 2020, culminating at the ALTA conference in Tucson, AZ.
The program defines an “emerging translator” as one who has published no more than one full-length work of translation. They add that, while ALTA’s Mentorship Program is open to all applicants, “we especially encourage applications from translators of color, translators with disabilities, LGBTQ+ translators, and those who don’t have an MA, an MFA, or some other equivalent type of training, such as a mentorship from the National Centre for Writing’s Emerging Translator Mentorships (UK). Though English is the target language, the emerging translator need not live in the United States. The selected mentee’s proposed project will be worked on based on availability (applicants are not expected to secure rights for their proposal).”