Meet Our Grantee-Partner: American Literary Translators Association
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) provides resources, community, support, and advocacy to the translation community, ensuring that diverse voices from around the world are translated, published, and made accessible to readers in the United States and beyond.
ALTA staff Fion Tse, Greta Henderson, Sean Gasper Bye, Kelsi Vanada, and Katrine Øgaard Jensen at the 48th annual ALTA conference. Photo courtesy of the American Literary Translators Association.
Mission: As the only organization in the United States devoted exclusively to literary translators, ALTA’s mission is to support their work, advance the art of literary translation, and connect students, teachers, publishers, and readers of literature in translation.
The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) was founded in 1978 by a cohort of translators at the University of Texas at Dallas to develop cultural communication and understanding through the art and craft of literary translation. ALTA eventually evolved into a nonprofit arts membership association operating out of Tucson, Arizona. It provides resources, community, support, and advocacy to the translation community, ensuring that diverse voices from around the world are translated, published, and made accessible to readers in the United States and beyond.
ALTA is the only organization in the United States devoted exclusively to literary translators. Translation currently accounts for only 3% of published books in the United States, and public funding for translation is scarce. ALTA fills vital gaps for translators, many of whom work in isolation and without institutional backing. Immigrants are the backbone of its membership—14% of members are heritage speakers of a language they translate, 32% were born outside the United States, and 62% have at least one parent or grandparent who was born outside the United States.
Poet-translators represent an underserved segment of the literary translation field, receiving far fewer publishing resources, funding, or opportunities for awards than fiction translators. While ALTA doesn’t limit translation to poetry, all of its programs are inclusive of poetry, with several specifically dedicated to the art. ALTA provides two translation awards for poetry, two poetry-focused mentorships for emerging translators, five poetry translation workshops, more than 60 virtual pitch sessions with poetry publishers, and hosts multiple poetry readings at the annual conference. ALTA also partners with the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center to co-present public events and teaching programs that foreground poetry in translation.
A cornerstone of ALTA’s work is its Emerging Translator Mentorship Program, which pairs early-career translators with experienced mentors in their language of focus. After nine months, it concludes with a reading at the annual ALTA conference and an opportunity to submit work to publishers through ALTA’s First Look program. Since its inception in 2015, it has supported more than 90 translators working from more than 30 languages, with a strong emphasis on underrepresented languages and a significant focus on poetry. Many mentees have gone on to publish poetry books, assume leadership roles in the field, and receive major awards.
ALTA’s annual conference is the only one in the United States dedicated exclusively to literary translation. Each year, it convenes 500 translators, publishers, educators, students, and literary professionals for a vibrant mix of panels, readings, workshops, and public events. Poetry plays a central role in the gathering. The Declamación reading is one of the conference’s longest-running and most popular events, and dedicated workshops and sessions support the craft and visibility of poetry translation. At its 48th annual conference, held in Tucson in November 2025, ALTA collaborated with local partners to ensure that poetry events reached multilingual communities across Southern Arizona, where nearly half of the residents speak a language other than English at home.
2025 ALTA Emerging Translator Mentorship Program participants at ALTA48. Photo courtesy of the American Literary Translators Association.
Receiving a general operating support grant from the Poetry Foundation has helped ALTA sustain and strengthen its core infrastructure, ensuring that ALTA can continue to fulfill its mission with particular attention to poetry. With unrestricted funding from the General Operating Support grant, ALTA was able to strengthen staffing, administrative capacity, and fundraising efforts. The impact of this support extends beyond day-to-day operations, strengthening the diversity of the literary field by supporting access to global voices and visibility of poetry in translation.
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