Established in 2018, the US National Book Awards’ newest category, Translated Literature, this year drew 141 submissions.

The Second of Five Categories’ 2024 Longlists

With its rate of submissions in this category running a bit lower than might have been expected, the United States’ National Book Foundation‘s second-released 2024 longlist is for Translated Literature.

This is the most important of the five categories for our international professional readership at Publishing Perspectives.  In 2023, this category drew 141 entries from publishers, the lowest number since the 2020 competition and the second-lowest since the 2018 establishment of the Translated Literature award.

Last year’s competition drew 154 submissions, by comparison to this year’s 141. The 2022 competition drew 146. Indeed the largest year for submissions so far in Translated Literature was 2021, when publishers made 164 entries. Even in the opening year, 2018 was slightly higher than this year’s input, at 142. Only one year’s number of entries has been lower than this year’s, and that was the pandemic year of 2020, when there were just 130 submissions.

While the differences in these numbers are not large, the longtime struggle of translated literature among American consumers is a perennially painful and frequently embarrassing point for many in the States’ book community and industry. Perhaps there’s some work to do on the part of the foundation in encouraging more submissions in this still-young category.

Source: Publishing Perspectives

Full article: https://publishingperspectives.com/2024/09/us-national-book-award-2024-longlists-translation/