The American Literary Translators Association has just announced the creation of three translation mentorships for the 2015-2016 academic year, in Catalan, French, and Polish. This is the pilot year of a project that will gradually be expanded to include a range of languages and mentors. The ALTA mentorship program is modeled on a similar one that’s been run very successfully for several years now by the British Centre for Literary Translation in the U.K. (for which U.S. based translators are also allowed to apply, by the way), as well as the mentorship component of the Yiddish Book Center’s Translation Fellowships. The principle is the same: mentors are recruited to work one-on-one for a period of one year with emerging translators; they are paid an honorarium for doing so; and both mentors and mentees receive funding to attend the ALTA conference during the year in question. In short: for a translator new or newish to the field, a mentorship is an invaluable way both to get feedback on your work and to make the sorts of connections likely to help you get your career started. So check out the guidelines and get working on your application soon – the deadline is July 15, 2015.
And while you’re at it, why not also join ELTNA, the Emerging Literary Translators’ Network in America, an ALTA affiliate for early-in-their-career translators. The organizers of ELTNA were the driving force behind getting the ALTA mentorships established, and ELTNA continues to expand its offerings for emerging translators.
Hope to see you this October for the 2015 ALTA Conference in Tuscon!