Manuscript Guidelines

Translation workshop applicants submit up to 4,000 words of prose or up to eight pages of poetry. Translators send their strongest work not yet published in a book form; submitting translations that have previously appeared in anthologies or journals is acceptable.

Those accepted into the workshops will be invited to send a replacement manuscript for workshop critique at that time, should they wish to do so. Applicants may use the same manuscript that they submitted with their application or choose to send a different manuscript but from the same project. Please note, though, that manuscript for workshop critique must consist of material that has not yet been published in book form or included in an anthology or journal. (Please note that during the conference the faculty member often selects a portion of the manuscript to focus on during the group workshop and may choose to address the manuscript as a whole during the individual meeting.)

Application Uploads

Please prepare the following two documents to upload with your application:

• Translation into English with brief preface.
  Please note “translation” at the top of each page. Please preface the translation with a brief (one page) introduction of the work identifying the language, time period, biography of the author and/or any salient details to contextualize your translation for an English-language reader. The brief preface is not included in the word count.
   
• A scan of that excerpt in the original language.
  Please note “original” at the top of each page (this is usually a scan of pages from a book or other source material; please send only the portion of the original that you translated, and while scanning, please place white pages around a smaller document where needed in order to avoid large black areas on the scanned page).

Important Details

• At the top of the translation manuscript, please include the following: the name of the author of the original; the language of the original; the genre of the piece (fiction, nonfiction, or poetry); and let the reader know if it’s a short story or essay that stands alone or if it’s an excerpt from a novel or longer work of nonfiction.
   
• Note your name and a page number on each sheet of the translation and also on each sheet of the original (example: YourLastName, p. 1).
   
• Save each document as a PDF (Word documents are also acceptable).
   
• When saving the documents, use your name in the title and follow the format: 
  YourLastName_YourFirstName_original.pdf
  YourLastName_YourFirstName_translation.pdf
   
• Prose translation manuscripts must be double-spaced with 12 pt. font and margins of at least 1.25”. The total word count should be noted at the top of the first page. Applicants may include one or more stories/essays as long as the total number of pages of the translation manuscript is within the 4,000 word limit. Manuscripts excerpted from a longer project should include a one-page synopsis placed at the back of the piece.
   
• Poetry manuscripts should have 12 pt. font and can be either single- or double-spaced. A poem can exceed one page, as long as the complete manuscript submission is within the eight-page limit. Limit one poem per page.
   
• Please do not send children’s or young adult literature, self-help literature, or translations of work that is not literary in nature.