I trust you’ve been keeping up with your reading of the literary journal Asymptote, which specializes in international literature in translation. Well, now you can do more than just read and submit to the journal – you can enter their all-new translation contest entitled “Close Approximations.” The competition will be judged by star translators Eliot Weinberger (poetry) and Howard Goldblatt (fiction), and I note that the competition guidelines specify “Preference will be given to translators who are early in their careers,” which is defined here as having published no more than one book-length work. I’m delighted to see a new contest for emerging translators, especially one that comes with an actual purse ($1000 for each winner). So check out the contest guidelines, and check out Asymptote, and get your submissions in by the Sept. 1, 2013 deadline. Watch this space for the announcement of the winners come fall.
P.S. A reader wrote to me this afternoon to ask whether Asymptote is now paying contributors to the magazine after their Indiegogo campaign this spring. According to the submission guidelines published on their website, they still do not pay contributors, but I put in a query to one of the editors and will let you know if I hear any different.