Genre: Translation

The Gulf Coast Prize in Translation, whose submission cycle closes in just under three weeks, recognizes a prose excerpt translated into English from another language. Why not gather the required materials and share your rendering of someone else’s words for a chance to win a prize of $1,000 and publication?

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Submit up to 10 pages of a story or essay in translation, a copy of the original text, a brief biography of the author, a synopsis of the work being translated, and proof that permission to translate the work has been granted with a $26 submission fee, which includes a subscription to Gulf Coast, or a $13 entry fee, which includes a half-year subscription, by August 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Started in 1982 by Donald Barthelme and Phillip Lopate as a 64-page student-run publication, Gulf Coast today counts on a readership of over 3,000 as the nationally distributed journal housed within the University of Houston’s English Department. The press’s annual translation prize alternates genres each year, awarding a group of poems and a prose excerpt. Anam Zafar won the 2021 prize for her translation of Najat Albed Alsamad’s story “My Friend’s Basement” and has said of Alsamad’s work that it “exposes conflict as an individual experience in which entire countries simply cannot be viewed through a single, zoomed-out lens.” One of four of Gulf Coast’s contests, the translation prize represents the journal’s enduring commitment “to providing a balanced combination of literary approaches and voices.”