ATBTM takes home National Translation Award

October 21, at the Downtown Marriott in Philadelphia, the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) presented the 2010 National Translation Award to Alex Zucker for his translation of Petra Hůlová's debut novel, All This Belongs to Me (Northwestern University Press, 2009).

Criteria for granting the award, which this year came with a prize of $5,000, are "(1) the significance of the literary contribution of the original as well as of the translation; and (2) the success of the translation in recreating the artistry of the original."

Sidney Wade, a member of the jury, in her remarks said that 109 books were nominated for the award and 15 of them made it through to the final round—more finalists than in any year before. For information on past NTA winners, click here (and scroll down).

First to report the news was Zdeněk Fučík of the Czech News Agency ČTK, whose dispatch rapidly made its way into the Czech press, first on aktuálně.cz, then on ihned.cz, a service of Hospodářské noviny.

Asked to comment on receiving the award, Zucker told ČTK:

"First and foremost, for me personally it is an enormous honor. Second, it means that ALTA recognizes the importance of small presses (in this case, Northwestern University Press) in keeping literary translation alive. Third, it is a recognition of the forward thinking Northwestern showed in choosing to publish what may be the first Czech novel ever translated that is not about Czechs or the Czech lands. This is a major landmark."