Sunday Submissions: Copper Canyon Accepting Translated Poetry Manuscripts
Copper Canyon Press is open for book-length poetry manuscripts from translators at any stage in their career:
Although they are charging a reading fee, it does entitle the submitter to two titles from their list.
According to their guidelines:
- Copper Canyon Press takes pride in publishing high-quality translations. We have published poetry originally composed in Spanish, Chinese, Belarusian, Japanese, Arabic, and many other languages. We select books in this category based on the excellence of the English translation and our interest in the original text. It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with translations we have already published.
- If possible, your submission should be bilingual; we want to see the original text as well as the English translation. If this is not possible due to technical or other concerns, indicate this in your cover letter.
- Indicate in your cover letter that you have identified the rights holder, unless the book is in the public domain. Ideally, a conversation regarding the rights to the book will have been engaged with the rights holder prior to your submission.
- In your cover letter, please provide a short biography of the author of the original text, as well as a short biography of yourself as translator.
Previous Arabic titles from Copper Canyon include Mahmoud Darwish’s The Butterfly’s Burden, translated by Fady Joudah, Maram al-Massri’s Red Cherry on a White Tile Floor, translated by Khaled Mattawa, and Taha Muhammad Ali’s So What?, which was translated by Gabriel Levin, Peter Cole, and Yahya Hijazi.
Submissions close December 1, 2019.