I’m sure you’ve been on tenterhooks ever since the longlists for the National Translation Award were announced back in July. Well, the wait is over. The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) has just published its 2015 NTA shortlists in Poetry and Prose. I’m thrilled to be on one of them, and in such excellent company. The winners will be announced at a prize ceremony at the annual ALTA conference (to be held this year in Tucson, AZ, Oct. 28-31, 2015). Maybe I’ll see you there? With no further ado, behold the lists:
The 2015 NTA Shortlist in Poetry (in alphabetical order by author):
Breathturn into Timestead by Paul Celan (Romania)
Translated from the German by Pierre Joris
(Farrar Straus and Giroux)
Guarding the Air: Selected Poems of Gunnar Harding (Sweden)
Translated from the Swedish by Roger Greenwald
(Black Widow Press)
Wallless Space by Ernst Meister (Germany)
Translated from the German by Graham Foust and Samuel Frederick
(Wave Books)
In the Illuminated Dark: Selected Poems of Tuvia Ruebner (Slovakia)
Translated from the Hebrew by Rachel Tzvia Back
(University of Pittsburgh Press/Hebrew Union College Press)
Sheds/Hangars by José-Flore Tappy (Switzerland)
Translated from the French by John Taylor
(The Bitter Oleander Press)
The 2015 NTA Shortlist in Prose (in alphabetical order by author):
New Waw, Saharan Oasis by Ibrahim al-Koni (Libya)
Translated from the Arabic by William M. Hutchins
(Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin)
End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck (Germany)
Translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky
(New Directions)
The Woman Who Borrowed Memories by Tove Jansson (Finland)
Translated from the Swedish by Thomas Teal & Silvester Mazzarella
(New York Review Books)
Why I Killed My Best Friend by Amanda Michalopoulou (Greece)
Translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich
(Open Letter Books)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (Russia)
Translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz
(Yale University Press)
Running Through Beijing by Xu Zechen (China)
Translated from the Chinese by Eric Abrahamsen
(Two Lines Press)
For descriptions of the books and their translations, see the ALTA website.