Writing Competitions: The American Literary Translators Association Awards

 ALTA Awards

The American Literary Translators Association awards four major prizes at the annual conference: the National Translation Award in Poetry and Prose, for an exceptional book of translated literature published within the previous year; the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, for an outstanding work of Asian literature published within the previous year; and the Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA), for an exceptional work of Italian prose in English translation. We also offer the ALTA Travel Fellowships for emerging translators to attend the annual conference, including the Peter K. Jansen Memorial Travel Fellowship for an emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language.

Submissions are accepted from January through mid-April via our online submissions system only.

Any questions about awards may be directed to Communications and Awards Manager Rachael Daum at:

rachaeldaumATliterarytranslatorsDOTorg (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

National Translation Award

The National Translation Award (NTA) is awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. Established in 1998, the NTA is the only prize for a work of literary translation into English to include an evaluation of the source language text. 2015 was the first year in which the NTA was awarded separately in poetry and prose. Recent winners include such distinguished translators as Richard Wilbur (2008), Norman Shapiro (2009), Alex Zucker (2010), Lisa Rose Bradford (2011), Sinan Antoon (2012), Phillip Boehm (2013), Eugene Ostashevsky and Matvei Yankelevich (2014), Pierre Joris (2015), William Hutchins (2015), Hilary Kaplan (2016), Elizabeth Harris (2016), Daniel Borzutzky (2017), Esther Allen (2017), Katrine Øgaard Jensen (2018 Poetry), Charlotte Mandell (2018 Prose), Bill Johnston (2019 Poetry), and Karen Emmerich (2019 Prose). You can find the full list of winners and judges here. 

Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize

Lucien Stryk (1924-2013) was an internationally acclaimed translator of Japanese and Chinese Zen poetry, renowned Zen poet himself, and former professor of English at Northern Illinois University. Stryk wrote, edited, and translated over two dozen volumes during his life. The $5,000 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize, which was inaugurated in 2009, recognizes the importance of Asian translation for international literature and promotes the translation of Asian works into English. 

Italian Prose in Translation Award

The Italian Prose in Translation Award (IPTA) recognizes the importance of contemporary Italian prose (fiction and literary non-fiction) and promotes the translation of Italian works into English. This $5,000 prize was inaugurated in 2015 and is awarded annually to a translator of a recent work of Italian prose (fiction or literary non-fiction). 

ALTA Travel Fellowships

Each year, between four and six $1,000 fellowships are awarded to emerging (unpublished or minimally published) translators to help them pay for hotel and travel expenses to the annual ALTA conference. At the conference, ALTA Fellows are invited to read their translated work at a keynote event, giving them an opportunity to present their translations to an audience of translators, authors, editors, and publishers from around the world.