Gulf Coast Translation Prize Deadline Aug. 31

74This translation prize almost slipped by me, but then I read about it in Rachel Morgenstern-Clarren’s exceedingly useful “The Week in Translation” column on Words Without Borders. Thanks, Rachel! And listen up, poet[try translator]s, you have very little time to get your submission in order if you’re just learning about this now. The journal Gulf Coast is offering a new prize in translation this year, and I’m guessing they’re planning to alternate genres, since this year is explicitly a prize for poetry translation only. The prize comes with a handsome purse ($1000) as well as publication in the magazine. The award will be judged by Jen Hofer (yay). Here are the submission guidelines:

Send up to 5 pages of poetry translated into English. Preference will be given to contemporary work published within the last fifty years. As part of your submission, include the text in its original language, provide a brief synopsis (no more than 200 words) of the author you are translating, and indicate whether you have, and can grant us, permission to publish the original work and the translation. If you have rights to reprint the original text in the U.S., please let us know that as well.

I think the magazine is a bit confused about how permissions work – that reminds me that I’m supposed to write up a blog entry about this. Translation rights cannot legally be granted to an individual, they can be granted only to the journal or publisher that will print the work. So if you don’t happen to know the poet you’re translating personally, really your job is to confirm that the translation rights are available (the publisher of the original should be able to send you an email to that effect); obviously you’ll need to get on that ASAP to make the Aug. 31 deadline.

Here’s hoping the contest goes well, elicits some interesting work, and gets repeated. I’ll do my best to get the word out earlier next year. More details on the Gulf Coast website.

Share this!

Comments are closed.

© Susan Bernofsky 2010-2018. All rights reserved. "Translationista" is a registered trademark.