American Literary Translators Association

Phases of the Quotidian | Los Angeles Review of Books C. Francis Fisher interviews Shangyang Fang about his new book “Study of Sorrow: Translations.”

“Translation lives in that liminal space, in the slippage between the native and the foreign. It’s there that an openness occurs, a sovereign space that belongs to the translator..."

Shangyang Fang about STUDY OF SORROW, a collection of translated Song-dynasty Ci poems. At LARB: buff.ly/ArNzgLc

2025 Winter Fundraiser In May, like many in the literary arts community, ALTA lost future funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, as our conference and programming “no longer effectuate[d] agency priorities.”…

Did you know? When you donate $25+ to ALTA by 12/19, you get entered into a raffle to win this year's National Translation Award winners, DOCUMENT SHREDDING MUSEUM, trans. Daniel Owen & SAND-CATCHER, trans. Barbara Romaine! Find out more about this and other giving benefits here:

BOMB Magazine | Kate Briggs by Tara Anne Dalbow A newly translated 1953  roman poétique investigates the tenuous bonds between a mother and daughter.

“There are these rarer, powerful moments where, through a quirk of phrasing or word order, you can feel language being actively patterned by a specific body.”

Kate Briggs talks about translating Hélène Bessette’s LILI IS CRYING. At BOMB Magazine: buff.ly/lXxHsqr @bombmag.bsky.social

Gabriella's Fundraising Page In May, like many in the literary arts community, ALTA lost future funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, as our conference and programming “no longer effectuate[d] agency priorities.” Now,...

Join me in supporting literary translators @littranslate.bsky.social this #givingtuesday
alta.app.neoncrm.com/campaigns/9/...

Wilding Language: Salim Barakat Between a Kurdish Heart and an Arabic Voice In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Mahmoud Hosny Roshdy discuss the idea of untranslatability (and perhaps, by extension, unreadability) and the work Salim B…

“One language is not enough, and one place is not enough. What I do is close to juggling in a circus, in the most playful but also the most serious sense.”

Translators Yasmeen Hanoosh and Mahmoud Hosny Roshdy on language and untranslatability. At ArabLit: buff.ly/YWKX5iA @arablit.bsky.social

2025 Winter Fundraiser In May, like many in the literary arts community, ALTA lost future funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, as our conference and programming “no longer effectuate[d] agency priorities.”…

In May, like many in the literary arts community, ALTA lost future funding from the NEA, as our conference and programming “no longer effectuate[d] agency priorities.”

Donate to ALTA today, and help us reach our goal of raising $20,000 by December 19.

We can only do it together!

Deepa Bhasthi on translation, recognition and the world of Heart Lamp Deepa Bhasthi on translation, recognition and the world of Heart Lamp

“Translation, for me, becomes a natural progression, getting to play with two very different language systems and cultures.”

Read an interview with 2026 ALTA mentor Deepa Bhasthi on her International Booker Prize-winning translation of HEART LAMP at t2ONLINE: buff.ly/Tn6cUcu

Words Unrising - Words Without Borders In this dreamlike excerpt, past and present come together in a feverish and hallucinatory blend, edged by violence and colonization.

Former ALTA board member Allison M. Charette’s translation of Raharimanana’s RETURN is out with Seagull Books now! Read this “dreamlike” excerpt at Words Without Borders / @wwborders.bsky.social:

😱 Last chance! Applications for the 2026 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program close TODAY!

Emerging translators, don't miss your chance to work 1-on-1 with an experienced translator on a translation of your choosing, at no cost to you. Apply by 11:59pm PT! alta.submittable.com/submit/

American Literary Translators Association Submission Manager The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes literary translation and translators.ALTA awards six major prizes at the annual ALTA…

‼️ Applications for the 2026 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program close TOMORROW! Emerging translators, don't miss your chance to work 1-on-1 with an experienced translator on a translation of your choosing, at no cost to you.

Apply by 11:59pm PT tomorrow! alta.submittable.com/submit/

American Literary Translators Association Submission Manager The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is a non-profit organization that supports and promotes literary translation and translators.ALTA awards six major prizes at the annual ALTA…

⏱️ Emerging translators! Time's running out: Don't miss your chance to work 1-on-1 with a translation mentor next year. Apply to the 2026 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program! 13 mentorships are available (at no cost to the emerging translator).

Apply by this Sunday, 11/30: buff.ly/EQW9BRV

Reading Around the World: 17 Great Books in Translation From University Presses Want to travel around the world without leaving your house? Just pick up a book that was translated from another language. Whether you are reading a novel originally written in French, a memoir ori…

Feel like traveling, but can’t find the time in your schedule? Check out these translations, including titles by ALTA members Nancy Naomi Carlson, Heather Hennes, and Shelley Fairweather-Vega, and let yourself be transported around the world. At @literaryhub.bsky.social:

📣 Emerging translators! Don't miss your chance to work 1-on-1 with a translation mentor next year: Apply to the 2026 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program! 13 mentorships are available (at no cost to the emerging translator!).

Time is running out: Apply by this Sunday, 11/30: buff.ly/EQW9BRV

“Stranded in Time”: Memory and Repetition in Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume (Book III) - Words Without Borders One of the basic tricks of narrative writing is assigning multiple functions to details. Under the guise of plot, we get characterization. Apparent description begets foreshadowing. Readers, by now…

“It’s an investigation that depends on careful attention to details, great and small.”

Jack Rockwell discusses time and attention to detail in Solvej Balle’s ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME (BOOK III), translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell. At @wwborders.bsky.social:

Culture.pl EN | Polish culture: literature, art, film, design, language, cuisine & more! Featuring over 50,000 articles in Polish, English and Russian, Culture.pl features the best of Polish literature, design, visual arts, music, film and more, with over 10 million visitors a year…

“I’ll be learning Polish for the rest of my life. I can’t say I’ve mastered it, but the same goes for English – I’ll be learning that forever too.”

ALTA member Antonia Lloyd-Jones talks to Agnes Dudek at CULTURE.PL about translating from Polish: culture.pl/en/article/u...

📣 Emerging translators! Don't miss your chance to work one-on-one with a translation mentor next year: Apply to the 2026 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program! There are 13 mentorships available (at no cost to the emerging translator!). But time is running out: Apply by 11/30: buff.ly/EQW9BRV

Literary translators! Our publisher, @twolinespress.com, is currently open for submissions for animal stories in translation (from any language) & the Stevns Translation Prize (for Vietnamese translators). As always, no submissions fees.

For more info visit: www.catranslation.org/books/submit...

Shortlist Announcement | 2025 Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize – Queen Sofia Spanish Institute

ICYMI: The 2025 Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Translation Prize award ceremony will be held tonight! The shortlist features ALTA members Kevin Dunn, Julia Sanches, and Lisa Dillman:

76th National Book Awards 76th National Book Awards - Longlist Announcements

🎉 Huge congratulations to ALTA member Robin Myers, whose translation from Spanish of WE ARE GREEN AND TREMBLING by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, published by New Directions, has won the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature! @ndbooks.bsky.social

Poetry Foundation Awards $1.3 Million in Grants Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive of POETRY magazine.

ALTA is delighted to have received a $20,000 grant from the Poetry Foundation! We're honored to be among 52 nonprofits receiving grants. This vital support will provide essential resources so we can continue to serve as a vital resource for poet-translators & the wider community.

from Prosthesis Factory - Asymptote 76A sudden lurch—forward, back,once, twice,and they’re offa booth on wheels,a puddle,garden,clay,clay,sandy loam,loamy clay,and now—            nothing but

Check out these poems from Prosthesis Factory—”funny, moving, lewd, vicious, sweet, defiant, and always attentive”—from Yan Satunovsky, translated from the Russian by ALTA member Ainsley Morse and Philip L. Redko: www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/prost...

Still reeling from basking in the sun in Tucson immediately followed by first sznl snow in Chicago! So happy to have the chance to read my translation excerpt at @littranslate.bsky.social + @saltatchicago.bsky.social

Fav day had to be workshop with ustaad @jasongrunebaum.bsky.social at UChicago :)

Pittsburgh friends! Make your way to Stay Gold Books on November 19 to hear ALTA members Michelle Mirabella and Will Morningstar discuss their respective debut translations, THE CRACKS WE BEAR and ALL THAT DIES IN APRIL: www.staygoldbooks.com/events

The Watchlist: October 2025 - Words Without Borders Tobias Carroll is back with new autumn reads for your TBR list: fiction from Cuba, nonfiction from China, poetry from Uruguay, and much more.

If you’re looking for more translated titles to add to your TBR, look no further! Check out this selection of exciting new releases, compiled by Tobias Carroll at Words Without Borders: wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

Ottilie Mulzet on Translating Hungarian Nobel Prize Winner László Krasznahorkai Translator Ottilie Mulzet joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about her award-winning translations of Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai’s work. Mulzet, who was born…

Translating László Krasznahorkai; the humor and music in his prose; and the current political moment: Don’t miss this conversation with past National Translation Award judge @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social at Lit Hub! @literaryhub.bsky.social lithub.com/ottilie-mulz...

Baptism by Fire: An Interview with Mayada Ibrahim on Arabophone Africa in Translation - Asymptote Blog I’m interested in Black subjectivity, in works that challenge and problematise the hegemony of Arabic. . .

"I try to resist the notion that educating the reader is my responsibility, as it’s harmful to treat readers as passive, disengaged consumers hungry for entertainment dressed up as instruction."

Check out this interview with past ALTA Travel Fellow @mayadamayadamay.bsky.social:

2025 National Book Awards Finalists Announced Twenty-five Finalists to contend for National Book Awards in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature

🎉 The finalists for the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature are here! Congratulations to all the finalists, including ALTA members Shelley Fairweather-Vega, David McKay, and Robin Myers!

South Asian girl in a black sleeveless dress at a wooden podium with a sign that reads “ALTA”

A group photo where translators stand in three rows

Two smiling women, one wearing a pink scarf or dupatta with black and white attire on the right and one in a black dress on the left

Very grateful to @littranslate.bsky.social, @kelsivanada.bsky.social, and my brilliant, kind, and generous mentor @shreedaisy.bsky.social for my translation mentorship this year. Here are a few photos from our readings at Tucson last week.

@jpolizei.bsky.social @antonialloydjones.bsky.social @jennymcphee.bsky.social

Longlist 2025 The Warwick Prize for Women in Translation Longlist 2025

ICYMI: The longlist for the 2025 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation has been announced! Congrats to all, including ALTA members Jon Cho-Polizzi, Kevin Gerry Dunn, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Paige Aniyah Morris, Katie Whittemore, and past ALTA award winners Don Mee Choi & Jenny McPhee! buff.ly/XRnY1wd