The National Translation Award (NTA) is awarded annually in poetry and in prose to literary translators who have made an outstanding contribution to literature in English by masterfully recreating the artistic force of a book of consummate quality. The NTA considers translations from translators of any nationality. The NTA is the only prize for a work of literary translation into English to include an evaluation of the source language text. 2023 marks the twenty-fifth year of the NTA and the ninth year in which the NTA is awarded separately in poetry and prose. The winners of the National Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose will be awarded a $4,000 prize each.

We are honored to spotlight the 2023 National Translation Award in Poetry judges, Pauline Fan, Heather Green, and Shook.

Pauline Fan is a writer and literary translator from Kuala Lumpur. Her translation of Kulleh Grasi’s poetry, Tell Me, Kenyalang (Circumference Books, 2019), was shortlisted for the 2020 National Translation Award in Poetry. She has translated several books from German to Malay, including works by Paul Celan, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Bertolt Brecht. Her essays and translations have appeared in publications such as Mekong Review, Words Without Borders, and Esquire Malaysia. She is creative director of the cultural organization PUSAKA and director of the George Town Literary Festival. Photo credit: Novelyn S. Patac

Image description: Pauline Fan, a Malaysian woman of mixed heritage, with long black hair, gazes into the camera with a subtle smile. She is wearing a light-coloured v-neck top, and a black skirt. Her arms are gently yet firmly folded in front of her at waist level.

Heather Green is the author of No Other Rome (2021) and the translator of Tristan Tzara's Noontimes Won (2018) and Speaking Alone (forthcoming 2024). Her translation of Sarah Manigne's novella Leaving Madrid received a 2021/2 French Voices Award. Her poems, translations, criticism, and essays have appeared in journals including Hopscotch Translation, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and Harriet Books, where she served as a reviewer in 2022. Green is the Visual Editor for Asymptote, an Assistant Professor in the School of Art at George Mason University, and a member of the poetry faculty of Cedar Crest College's Pan-European MFA program. Photo credit: Adrianne Mathiowetz

Image description: Heather, a dark-haired white woman with long hair pulled back, is pictured, head and shoulders against a dark backdrop, smiling toward the camera. Her top has a black and red geometric pattern.

Shook is a poet, translator, and editor whose work has spanned a wide range of languages and places. Winner of the 2021 Words Without Borders-Academy of American Poets Poems in Translation Contest for their work with poet Conceição Lima of São Tomé and Príncipe, their most recent translations include the Mexican experimentalist Mario Bellatin’s Beauty Salon, the exiled Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi’s forthcoming A Friend’s Kitchen, co-translated with Bryar Bajalan, and Kurdish iconoclast Farhad Pirbal’s forthcoming Refugee Number 33,333, co-translated with Pshtiwan Kamal Babakir. Shook’s own poetry has been translated into over a dozen languages. They live in West Marin. Photo credit: Travis Elborough

Image description: Shook stares directly into the camera, wearing yellow glasses and sporting a waxed handlebar mustache. Their curly, black hair falls just above their ears, and they're wearing a black T-shirt, with a white tasbih just visible around their neck.

Submissions for the National Translation Award in Prose are being accepted until April 17, 2023 at 11:59pm PT.