Six years ago now (in 2007) I was one of the lucky young translators to get an ALTA Travel Fellowship. It was good money, huge encouragement at a precarious and impressionable time, and a great entrée into the world of literary translation by way of a conference that still manages to gather many of the country’s best literary translators each year for shoptalk, drinks, fascinating panels, and general comradery.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2013 ALTA Travel Fellowship Awards.  If you’re a newcomer to translation, no matter your age, you should try your hand! Each year, four to six fellowships in the amount of $1,000 are awarded to beginning (unpublished or minimally published) translators to help them pay for travel expenses to the annual ALTA conference.  (When I applied, I had two lit mag credits and a handful of comics to my name.) The 2013 conference will be held October 16–19 in Bloomington, Indiana, where UI has an impressive library with translators’ papers.
At the conference, ALTA Fellows will give readings of their translated work at a keynote event, thus providing them with an opportunity to present their translations to a large audience of other translators, as well as to publishers and authors from around the world. ALTA Fellows will also have the opportunity to meet experienced translators and to find mentors.
If you would like to apply for a 2013 ALTA Travel Fellowship, please e-mail if possible a cover letter explaining your interest in attending the conference; your CV; and no more than ten double-spaced pages of translated text (prose or poetry) accompanied by the original text to maria.suarez@utdallas.edu.
If you have difficulties with e-mail, please mail the above documents to:
2013 ALTA Travel Fellowship Awards
c/o The University of Texas at Dallas
800 West Campbell Road. Â JO51
Richardson, TXÂ 75080-3021
Applications must be received by May 15, 2013 in order to be considered for this year’s fellowships. Winners will be notified at the end of August. For more information, please visit ALTA’s website (www.literarytranslators.org) or contact Maria Rosa Suarez (maria.suarez@utdallas.edu, 972-883-2093).
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