Speed-Date an Editor at the ALTA Conference

ALTA_logoThis year’s ALTA (American Literary Translators Association) conference in Milwaukee is coming right up (Nov. 12-15, 2014), and if you’re planning to attend, why not sign up for ALTA’s new speed-dating service for editors and translators? No, this doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed romance, but translators who are accepted into this program will be paired with an editor from a respectable publication (such as Words Without Borders, Open Letter, The Literary Review, or the Notre Dame Review) who will give  feedback and advice on up to two pages of work. What could beat that? You can even submit specific questions along with the work sample if you’d like. Oh, and it’s free, or almost. Participants don’t have to pay anything, but if you can afford to, ALTA requests that you donate $10 to support future programming of this and other wonderful sorts.

So you’re interested in signing up? Great! The deadline for submissions was originally this Friday, Oct. 24, but I just heard it’s being extended to Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Oh, and here’s one bit of Translationista advice for you: To get the most out of an opportunity like this, make sure the excerpt you submit has been polished and revised to within an inch of its life. If you submit a translation with obvious clunkers in it, that’s all the editor will see. Show the editor your work at its absolute best so she won’t spend your session pointing out problems you already knew were problematic.

More information and complete instructions on how to apply and submit your work can be found here. Happy dating!Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 5.57.05 PM

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