The Polish Book Institute

Three translations of Polish books have been nominated for the prestigious National Translation Awards (NTA) administered by the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA). Among the nominees, there are Clare Cavanagh for the translation of Ryszard Krynicki, Bill Johnston, the winner of the Transatlantic Award, for the translation of Julia Fiedorczuk, as well as Eliza Marciniak for the translation of Wioletta Grzegorzewska.

Out of 24 nominated translations in poetry and prose, there are as many as three translations from Polish: selected poems by Julia Fiedorczuk, selected poems by Ryszard Krynicki, and Guguły (Swallowing Mercury) by Wioletta Grzegorzewska. Within the list of nominees, the number of Polish translations came second only to Spanish, of which there were five.

Below is a full NTA Longlist in Poetry:

The Book of Disquiet

Fernando Pessoa

translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa
(New Directions)

Directions for Use

Ana Ristović

translated from the Serbian by Steven Teref and Maja Teref

(Zephyr Press)

Hackers

Aase Berg

translated from the Swedish by Johannes Göransson

(Black Ocean)

I Remember Nightfall

Marosa di Giorgio

translated from the Spanish by Jeannine Marie Pitas

(Ugly Duckling Presse)

If I Were a Suicide Bomber

Per Aage Brandt

translated from the Danish by Thom Satterlee

(Open Letter Books)

Magnetic Point: Selected Poems

Ryszard Krynicki

translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh

(New Directions)

My Lai

Carmen Berenguer

translated from the Spanish by Liz Henry

(Cardboard House Press)

The Odyssey

Homer

translated from the Greek by Emily Wilson

(W. W. Norton & Company)

Oxygen: Selected Poems

Julia Fiedorczuk

translated from the Polish by Bill Johnston

(Zephyr Press)

Sonic Peace

Kiriu Minashita

translated from the Japanese by Spencer Thurlow and Eric Hyett

(Phoneme Media)

Spiral Staircase: Collected Poems

Hirato Renkichi

translated from the Japanese by Sho Sugita

(Ugly Duckling Presse)

Third-Millennium Heart

Ursula Andkjær Olsen

translated from the Danish by Katrine Øgaard Jensen

(Action Books)

The NTA Longlist in prose looks as follows:

Affections 

Rodrigo Hasbún

translated from the Spanish by Sophie Hughes

(Simon & Schuster)

August

Romina Paula

translated from the Spanish by Jennifer Croft

(Feminist Press)

Compass

Mathias Énard

translated from the French by Charlotte Mandell

(New Directions)

Dandelions

Yasunari Kawabata

translated from the Japanese by Michael Emmerich

(New Directions)

Ghachar Ghochar

Vivek Shanbhag

translated from the Kannada by Srinath Perur

(Penguin Books)

The Impossible Fairy Tale

Han Yujoo

translated from the Korean by Janet Hong

(Graywolf Press)

The Invented Part

Rodrigo Fresán

translated from the Spanish by Will Vanderhyden

(Open Letter Books)

Italian Chronicles

Stendhal

translated from the French by Raymond N. MacKenzie

(University of Minnesota Press)

Moving the Palace

Charif Majdalani

translated from the French by Edward Gauvin

(New Vessel Press)

Old Rendering Plant

Wolfgang Hilbig

translated from the German by Isabel Fargo Cole

(Two Lines Press)

Swallowing Mercury

Wioletta Grzegorzewska

translated from the Polish by Eliza Marciniak

(Transit Books)

The World Goes On

László Krasznahorkai

translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes, Ottilie Mulzet, and John Batki

(New Directions)

Nominations were announced on 16^th July. The NTA is the only honour in the United States which is awarded on the basis of a rigorous examination of both the source text and its relation to the finished English work.

This year’s judges for poetry are Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Jennifer Feeley, and Sawako Nakayasu, whereas the prose judges are Esther Allen, Tess Lewis, and Jeremy Tiang. The winning translators will receive a $2,500 cash prize each.