IALA 2024 Israelyan English Translation Grant

The Israelyan English Translation Grant from the International Armenian Literary Alliance will award $3,000 to one translator working from Armenian (either Western or Eastern) source texts into English, whose work-in-progress shows exceptional literary and creative ability. In 2024, the grant will be awarded for a work of literature (in any literary genre) written in Armenian and published any time after 1900.

Given the traumatic history of the Armenian diaspora, many readers are unable to read works in the original Armenian, and therefore, have centuries of literature inaccessible to them. Translators working with Armenian texts have traditionally lacked resources in the publishing world, as well as access to other funding, due to the overwhelming influence of so-called “majority languages.” IALA’s Israelyan English Translation Grant supports translators working with contemporary Armenian literature through a monetary award. Additionally, IALA will support grant recipients in promoting their publications through marketing on our website and social media channels, book reviews, readings and discussions.

Application Period: September 1-30, 2024

The application will include a 5,000 word writing sample from the work the translator intends to use the grant to complete, a brief bio, and a personal statement summarizing the translator’s relationship to the work (i.e., why they’ve chosen to translate the work that they have selected). The full application will be posted online on September 1, 2024, and the winner will be announced in December 2024.

This grant was made possible by a generous donation from Souren A. Israelyan.

Eligibility and Requirements

Age: Must be over 21 at the time of application.
Language: English.
Applicants must be active members of IALA at the time of application. For those on a low income or who are unemployed, we offer several discounted or free memberships per year.
Not open to members of the IALA board of directors or advisory board.
No previous publication record is required.
Applicants may submit one application per year. Those who are not awarded the grant may re-apply in the future. Grant recipients are ineligible to re-apply for two years.
Source texts must be written in Eastern or Western Armenian.
You may choose to submit any unpublished translation or a translation-in-progress.
The final manuscript of the translation must be completed by December 2025.

Review Criteria

Applications will be reviewed through a “blind” panel process. Judging will be based on:

Literary excellence and originality of the original text; applicants should consider IALA’s dedication to diversity as expressed in our mission and vision statement within this criterion
Both the author’s craft and style and the translator’s adaptation of it; in other words, the quality of the translation in preserving the author’s intent
The author’s importance and relevance in Armenian literature; and
The relevancy of the work to contemporary readers.

In addition to considering issues of craft, we also prioritize the expression of experiences that haven’t been widely read about, such as those by marginalized writers. We expect the personal statement to also convey how receiving the grant will help the artist in the completion of their project.

Also explore IALA’s 2024 Israelyan Armenian Translation Grant and IALA’s 2024 Creative Writing Grant.